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COSMOGONY: 



THE GEOLOGICAL ANTIQUITY OP THE WORLD, 

EVOLUTION, ATHEISM, PANTHEISM, DEISM 

AND INFIDELITY REFUTED, 



BY 



SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND SCRIPTURE, 



Prof. THOMAS MITCHELL. 



IN TWO VOLUMES. 



SYLLOGISM: 

The food of plants does not exist in nature. 
Plants prepare their own food. 
Therefore the first plants were creations. 



If God ever caused a book to be written of the origin of the world and its 
inhabitanis, every statement of the work must have Involved a philosophic 
necessity and a scientific conclusion. Sucbhave we found the statements of 
Holy Scripture; therefore the Creator of Nature was the Autbor-ef Scripture. 



JN SO 1831 

NEW YORK. \o,,f "'••••^■^••^•";Jr 
THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPaS^'^IIS^ 
Publishers' Agents, 
1881. 



TT 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by 

CHARLES K. MITCHELL, 

in tlie Office of tlie Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



PREFACE, 



" My intercourse with highly-gifted men," says Alex- 
ander Von Humboldt in the preface to his "Cosmos," 
'^ early led me to discover that without earnest striving 
to attain to a knowledge of some specific branch of study, 
all attempts to give a grand and general view of the uni- 
verse would be nothing more than a vain delusion." 

The correctness of this conclusion is unquestionable, 
and its force may be more fully comprehended if we 
consider the fact that a specific branch of study, or 
a single science, is not only a part of the whole — the 
Cosmos, the universal science — but as such is necessary 
in order to understand and illustrate all the other parts. 
As well undertake to explain the whole of a masterpiece 
of art by leaving out a part, and especially if it be an 
essential part. While, however, it seems to have been 
Humboldt's object to give a comprehensive and con- 
nected view of the universe as of a finished work, he 
fails to investigate the grand purpose of the Cosmos 
itself. The temporal absorbs him. What it accom- 
plishes in animal and human sustenance is the limit of 
his investigations, while the end for which it was made 
reaches into the eternal ; and without taking this into 
the account, the disorder and derangement of the tem- 
poral is inevitably involved in the unfathomable mystery 
in which modern science finds and leaves the universe, 

Humboldt has endeavored to deal with the mysteries 
iii 



IV REFACE. 

arising out of this aspect of nature in most of its details, 
and has crowded all the known natural science of his 
time into his voluminous productions. Of course his 
work is consistent with his undertaking, as Cosmos 
limits it to the universe, or the whole system of visible 
bodies, including the earth and the stars ; but it requires 
the combined cosmogony of the whole, together with the 
science of its origin and creation, to explain its cosmical 
involvement. 

Of the physical universe itself, in all its departments — 
which, for simplification, is divided into the several sci- 
ences — we have endeavored to trace the parts and phe- 
nomena to adequate causes, or a cause ; and failing to 
find it within the limits of the universe, we have been 
driven to search beyond and above for its origin, and 
have found the true origin of nature inseparably allied 
with a living mind, thus demonstrating that its origin 
alone centers in Creative Fiat, and not in natural ma- 
terialism. But while the book of nature reveals as her great 
Original a Being of wisdom and power equal to the con- 
ception and achievement of the marvelous works which 
she displays, " the scripture of truth " completes the 
great circle of revelation by showing the nature of the 
purpose in its creation, and the interest and disposition 
of the Creator in and toward the grandest display of his 
handiwork — Man. 

Humboldt talks about creation, but nothing is more 
apparent from his writings than that he entertains no 
other idea of what the word implies than that which he 
calls Nature. Among the wonderful things discovered 
by science and art he says that '*by the aid of powerful 
instruments scanning the regions of space, we see the 
remote nebulous mass resolving itself into worlds of 
stars " (" Cosmos," i, 20). If the nebulous mass resolves 



PREFACE. V 

itself into stars^ of course it leaves no work for a Creator 
to do in making stars. In order to give full credit to 
this opinion, we must remember that it is held by this 
same scientist, as well as by all others, that the stars thus 
formed are suns, each of which has a planetary system 
like our own solar system, with its planets and their 
satellites. Here, then, is the strongest possible expres- 
sion of atheistic materialism, for which there is not the 
least evidence in science. To combat such an opinion 
would be the extreme of folly. 

As an apology for his assertion, and as a reason why 
we should receive it without proof, he gives us the exam- 
ple of another scientist who had done the same thing. 
He says, vol. i. p. 28 : " Laplace has combined the re- 
sults of the highest astronomical and mathematical 
bodies, and has presented them to his readers free from 
all processes of demonstration. The structure of the 
heavens is here reduced to the simple solution of a great 
problem in mechanics ; and yet his work has never been 
accused of incompleteness and want of profundity." To 
be sure, this is a very simple process of accounting for 
the structure of the sidereal heavens — namely, that white 
cloudy vapor should set itself at work and resolve itself 
into systems of planets, with vegetable and animal life 
and all their phenomena; but is it not childish sim- 
plicity ? One great scientist compliments another because 
he has not deigned to prove his scientific opinions, praises 
him because he has not demonstrated them, and of 
course falls in love with the scientific world for not call- 
ing in question their completeness and profundity. Un- 
demonstrated profundity ! — a contradiction in terms. 
And these are the men who stand at the head of the 
school of " modern scientists " ! 

Humboldt says, " Physics, as the term signifies, is lim- 



VI PREFACE. 

ited to the explanation of the phenomena of the material 
world by the properties of matter." Do the properties 
of the materials out of which a steam-engine is composed 
explain the origin, construction, mechanism and capa- 
bilites of the machine ? The explanation of one or all 
of these can alone be found in the mind of the inventor 
and builder. So is it with the machine called the Solar 
System, and all the constellations revolving in limitless 
space. The construction of each explains or manifests 
the power and capacity of the Mind that made it. The 
endowment of their simple or combined properties neces- 
sitates all phenomena, and explains the wisdom of the 
great Artificer of all that moves ; hence " physics " ex- 
plains nothing, but depends entirely upon mind for the 
explanation of its own existence. 

The total absence of a cause in all nature — which is 
only a universe of effects — demonstrates the impossi- 
bility of original matter or even nature, as perfect as she 
now exists, having resolved themselves into anything, 
much less into suns and systems. Hence all phenomena 
came from the mind of God, the only Cause ; every one of 
which is a finger pointing backward to its origin, cause 
of existence and motion, instead of to its properties as 
that cause ; each of which is an effect, just as a steam- 
engine points to its maker for the explanation of its con- 
struction. Hence the error of Humboldt's doctrine of 
physics. He seems to have felt that such a definition 
shuts God 01^ of the universe, because he afterward 
tacitly admits that there is something in nature, or man- 
ifested by it, which is beyond and superior to " physics ;" 
and yet, in an elaborate attempt at a more satisfactory 
elucidation of his idea of what that something is, he 
covertly admits his notion of " no God," while he en- 
deavors to disguise it by speciously arguing that " the 



PREFACE. 



forces inherent in matter " would, of " primordial neces- 
sity," exercise their action " according to periodical com- 
pulsion and at intervals," by the " progressive development 
of occult, permanent connection," in "obedience to the 
first impulse imparted." " These constitute nature." 

According to his definition of nature, it is as follows : 
" In reflecting upon physical phenomena and events, 
and trying their causes by the process of reason, we be- 
came more and more convinced of the truth of the 
ancient doctrine, that the forces inherent in matter, and 
those which govern the world, would exercise their ac- 
tion under the control of primordial necessity and in 
accordance with movements occurring periodically, after 
longer or shorter intervals. It is this necessity — this oc-' 
cult but permanent connection in the progressive devel- 
opment of forms, phenomena and events — which consti- 
tutes nature, obedient to the first impulse imparted to it." 
" Cosmos," p. 30. 

Now, if this learned and gifted author understood or 
believed that a being of intelligence created all the forms 
of matter, by endowing the atoms with chemical and 
electrical peculiarities, and that these constituted the oc- 
cult forces they possess, he surely could have said so in 
so many words. The expression " occult " comes the 
nearest to it, and this means " concealed," as the un- 
known qualities of matter. The occult sciences in the 
middle ages were magic, alchemy, and necromancy. If 
he believed it, and did not wish to exalt matter above 
or equal to God, why did he not describe the properties 
of matter as they exist, and draw the logical sequence, 
which necessitates the prior existence of an intelligent 
being, by whose efforts alone the forms and qualities of 
matter, simple or compound, organic or inorganic, could 
have originated ? Why could he not have said that par- 



Vlll PREFACE. 

tides of matter exist, and are endowed with various qual- 
ities ? These particles have no intelligence, and yet they 
perform intelligent purposes ; therefore they must have 
received this endowment from a being capable of form- 
ing and executing purposes. He was therefore before and 
superior to nature. His was the mind that conceived, 
His the will that called into being, His the hand that 
shaped and gave motion and life to the vast system of 
nature called the universe. 

Here the hand of God is as clearly manifest, and His 
power seen in their motions and effects, as are the genius, 
skill, and power of the mechanic in the invention, con- 
struction and movements of the machinery propelled 
by steam and electricity. Man knows that the greater 
machinery of suns and stellar systems, or that of the 
solar system, was no more capable of forming or develop- 
ing themselves from particles of nebulous, vapory mat- 
ter (as Humboldt affirms), than was the steam engine 
capable of forming and developing itself from the metals 
which compose it. If it is a severe tax on our mental 
powers to conceive and concede the existence of a Being 
equal to the task of creating the world, or nature, how 
infinitely greater is the tax imposed by that theory which 
claims that dumb, unintelligent matter — Nature — made 
herself ! How infinitely greater are the credulity and 
superstition of those who believe the latter ; and with 
what ill grace can these scientists (so called) taunt be- 
lievers in God and the Bible with superstition ! 

Another Scientist Attempts a Definition. 

" Nature," Schelling remarks, in his poetic discourse 
on art, is not an innate mass ; and to him who can 
comprehend her vast sublimity, she reveals herself as 
the creative force of the universe. Before all time, 



PREFACE. IX 

eternal, ever active, she calls to life all things, whether 
perishable or imperishable." Here is another sublime 
effort to sophisticate the reader by the use of words, not as 
" signs of ideas," but to cover their absence, or to conceal 
opinions which the fear of unpopularity prevents from 
being clearly expressed. " Nature is the creative force 
of the universe ; she was before all time.** He does not 
say, before all nature : this would have revealed the fact 
that by " creative force " he had the conception and 
meant to convey the idea that force was the creator of 
nature, and only modestly used the word Force for God. 
But as nature was the force itself, being eternal she never 
came into existence at all ; for an eternal thing never 
can begin to be ; or if she was not eternal, and began to 
be, she brought herself into being by self-action. The 
latter conclusion would necessitate the action of a thing 
before it existed ; while the former denies the origin of 
nature altogether, as an eternal thing never originated : 
and yet this nature was the force which brought herself 
into existence. This passage of Schelling may be good 
poetry, but it is poor philosophy and bad reasoning. 
" Nature called into life all things, whether perishable or 
imperishable ; " and she did this before she existed her- 
self, or she does not now exist. 

He says : " Nature is ever active." This expression 
shows that its author did not entertain the conception 
that it was a Being of mind and intelligence, and con- 
sequent volition, as such a being could rest as well as 
work ; could act as well as cease to act. 

This " ever active force " was not a thing of life even 
as high as that of the lowest animal : for this has the 
power of volition, and may act or rest at pleasure ; but 
this lifeless thing, denominated " nature," called all living 
objects, whether perishable or imperishable, into life 



X ^ PREFACE. 

Here we have Schelling's poetic philosopky from which 
Humboldt takes his idea of " force." A thing having no 
life or volition itself, gives light and locomotion to all 
that lives and moves. Fundamental to the whole theories 
of atheism and evolution is the idea of progression and 
succession. Their language is, " Since something must 
be endless, an endless progression of causes and effects 
contains nothing intrinsically improbable." If the exact 
reverse of this position had been assumed, their conclu- 
sion might have been logical, thus : " Since there is no 
progression, retrogression, or succession — no coming into 
existence or going out — no one being born or dying — 
none beginning to live and none ceasing to live — nothing 
modified, changed, or changeable ; but on the contrary 
everything moving in circles and not in lines, then might 
things have been eternal — without beginning or end : but 
the fact that progress, succession, change, modification, 
is the order of nature, it is fatally irreconcilable with 
the hypothesis of atheism ; at the same time it confirms 
the position that nature, including all her phenomena, 
whether simple or complicated, had a begining, a crea- 
tion, and an intelligent creator. Since, therefore, some- 
thing must have been endless, it could not have been the 
changeable, but alone the " Infallible." To believe the 
contrary is the strangest credulity, the most marvelous sci- 
ence ! Who would not be a modern scientist ? And about 
all that is necessary to be one is, to be born in Germany 
and educated at the Leipsic University ; or to have one's 
birthplace in England, and graduate at Oxford ; as from 
these sources principally we import the godless materialism 
of the geological indefinite periods and the marvels of 
evolving before involving, unfolding before enfolding, 
unrolling before enrolling ; in a word, of bringing things 
from whence they do not exist. 



PREFACE. XI 

We are aware that we shall be complimented as " in- 
genious " in our manner of handling these vast subjects ; 
but we reciprocate the compliment by ascribing the 
merited genius alone to these skeptical scientists, as the 
only defense their side of the question admits. This 
book evades no point, shuns no investigation, and 
shrinks from no conclusion ; and we flatter ourselves 
that, though the discussion deals with the whole range 
of natural philosophy and science, from the grandest 
complication to the simplest molecules of nature, yet all 
may be comprehended, and that too by the common 
people. 

That the author of these volumes has displayed an 
ingenuity which has put to silence all the genius and 
■apparent reasonings of all the natural philosophers, sci- 
entists, atheists, deists, pantheists, and infidels of ancient 
and modern times — in a word, the whole school of ma- 
terialists who have attempted to account for the origin 
of the universe by the principles inherent in matter — 
is too absurd to be entertained for a moment. But as 
the book produces this effect by presenting arguments 
from every department of natural existence, each of 
which demonstrates the priority of a personal God, pos- 
sessed of a degree of intelligence and power equal to 
the Creator, and to whose direct interference the uni- 
verse owes its origin and destiny, it leaves the alternative 
that they are correct both in premise and conclusion, and 
therefore true. 

Genius may make error appear truth, and this is the 
sole foundation of materialism. What is demanded to 
demolish the whole lying superstructure is to place the 
truth by its side. Truth is ever simple and .evter^ 
while error is ever mysterious, confused and*xfenfipB^g' 




TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PREFACE. 

PAGE 

Defect of Humboldt's Cosmos 1 

His definition of physics too limited 6 

Another scientist attempts definition 8 

To whom belongs the genius ? 18 

INTRODUCTION. 

To ascertain truth, prejudice must be laid aside 23 

No antagonism between science and Scripture > 25 

The necessity of controversy 27 

CHAPTER I. 

Independence of mind necessary to arrive at truth 29 

Ancient philosophy, science and libraries 82 

Aristotle on morality — Plato on virtue 33 

Wisdom and virtue contrasted 34 

Difference between natural and moral virtue 37 

xiii 



XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

God tlie measure of everything good and grand 88 

Library of Euclid — How tliey made books 40 

Pythagoras, his learning, persecution and death 42 

Socrates' manner of teaching 43 

Discourse of Callias in Euclid's library 44 

The ideas invented by men a real dearth 47 

Euclid on astronomy, gravity — Earth a sphere 49 

What Euclid knew of geography 52 

All the natural science of the ancients 54 



CHAPTER II. 

Bible statements of Creation the most advanced science 57 

Truth a system — One department explains another 59 

So-called science more contradictory than religion 60 

Scientists must not ignore, but prove the Bible false 62 

Radical changes of modern science 64 

Scripture account of Creation going back of Genesis 70 

Manner of Creation — Chemical endowment of atoms by mind 72 

The Eden world destroyed by the deluge 78- 

The geological appearances prove the flood ; 75 

Volcanoes and earthquakes accounted for 76 

Fossil and shell argument confirms the deluge 79 

The glacial period never existed 79 

Prof. Agassiz's cause unscientific 81 

Lyell's attempt inadequate 83 

The argument of uniformityisra exploded 87 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER HI. 

PAGE 

Reason, facts, science and Scripture opposed to evolution. . . 

Why error in science gets tlie start of truth 89 

Every fact has its science and philosophy 91 

Was man created ? 94 

Sophistry of geologists exposed 95 

Absurdity of the theory that one vital organ produces another 97 

The primordial form could not have been evolved 100 

Conditions of life 103 

Evolution reversed upon its own principles 105 

If evolution exists, it is a rapid process 106 

Creation first, evolution next 108 

CHAPTER IV. 

Christianity and evolution contrasted 110 

If Genesis falls, so do the rest of the Scriptures Ill 

The whole gospel is in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. 11§ 

The Bible standard of ethics too high to be improved 116 

The standard of Atheism also thus contrasted 118 

Monkey origin of man Darwin's main conclusion 130 

Savage life not the normal condition of man 133 

The present world designed only to be temporary 135 

Without a knowledge of the end designed the world is an 

enigma 136 

Real progress must be physical, moral and mental 138 

Mental impression physically deteriorates 130 

The wisdom of the Creator in limiting its power 133 



XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

PAGE 

Materialism exposed by the laws of matter and motion 

What is materialism ? 133 

An objection of mental philosophy removed 135 

Mental organs formed of matter 138 

Involuntary sleep death 140 

To understand nature, you must understand the Bible 142 

Skeptical materialism defined 144 

The doctrine of immateriality — Annihilation 145 

Substantial nature of God proved by His attributes 147 

Jesus Christ a material being, but the Christian's God 148 

Scripture argument proving the Lord Jesus the only God. . . 151 

Christ is worthy of all honor 154 

If man evolved in time, why not God in eternity ? 155 

Scripture definition of the word " create ** 158 

What was the nature of the original matter? 161 

The Atomic Theory exposed 162 

Changes of matter by the mind of God 164 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mind, molecules, and the imponderable agents 

How came the atoms to be endowed witli gravity ? 166 

Majlis physiological superiority compared 168 

Power mental — Its conditions and philosophy 170 

The food of plants not in nature 172 

The vegetable primordial a perfect plant 174 

The formation of the first plant an effect 176 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XVll 

PAGE 

Plant absorption of carbonic acid makes the wind blow 179 

Why skeptics and scientists are driven to absurdity 181 

The progenitors of each species perfect at first 185 

The mischief of attributing results to "the laws of nature." 189 

Nothing imponderable : the proof test 192 

Friction the law of heat and light : both matter 194 

All organic bodies have atmospheres 198 

Temperature the universal agent of nature 200 

Heat the law of motion and gravity 203 

CHAPTER VII. 

Limit of human conception 205 

Electricity a created substance. 207 

Electric attraction and repulsion of the Solar System 209 

Electricity contains the elements of all bodies 211 

Magnetism the agent of mind 213 

Inanimate things perform intelligent locomotion 216 

Experiments by Dr. Bell 218 

A table moves without human contact 220 

A reflection from such teaching 221 

Nature does not reveal the moral character of God 224 

Man the natural image of God 225 

Personality of God revealed by that of man 228 

CHAPTER Vni. 

Spurious data of geological calculation 

Six 24 hour days ample for the world's creation 230 



XVIU TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The evolution world-maker enslaved by his work 232 

How much of the solar system it takes to clothe and feed 

man 234 

The carboniferous period never existed 236 

The original soil a creation 238 

' ' The world to come," solves the mystery of this 241 

All appearances of the world prove its existence temporary. 243 

Dr. Coan's calculations erroneous 247 

When geologists began to be skeptical 250 

Another theory of the age of Niagara 253 



CHAPTER IX 

Darwin's sophistry exposed 256 

Darwin begs the question 259 

There never was a natural atheist or evolutionist 261 

The wonders of incubation 2G4 

Extreme changes in organic things sudden 265 

History of the coffee plant 268 

If evolution were true, all plants would be produced in all 

countries 270 

Philosophy of peculiar human features 274 

Animal variations caused by climate , 276 

Darwin's defective reasoning 278 

The most civilized w.ould not survive 280 

Tlieir own arguments prove evolution impossible 284 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIX 

CHAPTER X. 

i PAGE 

Defective geological data — Transparent collusion 288 

Hard pressed for evidence 290 

A clear case of collusion, or fraud 293 

Lyell summoned to estimate tlie age of tlie skulls 296 

The oil fountains proved to be creations 298 

Tlie gravel and boulder deposits by tlie flood 301 

Lyell's ignorance or arrogance 301 

Rapid changes in short spaces 304 

The contest for survival between the oak and the beach 306 

Better testimony than that of Lyell 308 

Rapid changes of deposit 310 

The Loess proves the existence of the flood 313 

The chalk argument stated 313 

The argument unscientific 315 

CHAPTER XI. 

Professors Huxley's and Tyndall's materialism false science 317 

Huxley's definition of evolution 317 

Conditions of life 318 

The primordial a perfect creation 321 

The wonderful structure of the lungs 324 

Amount of the flow of blood 325 

Philosophical necessities bringing the primordial into exist- 
ence 327 

Nature incapable of producing life 330 

Similar appearance no proof of species 332 



XX TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Prof. Tyndall's Belfast speech reviewed 334 

Tyndall abandons disguise and becomes atheistic 336 

Modern scientists quote heathen philosophers as guides 338 

Evolution degrades its defenders 340 



CHAPTER XII. 

Prof. Proctor's Nebulous Fiery Origin of the Solar System 

unscientific 345 

The nebular hypothesis stated 347 

Facts of natural science prove the nebular hypothesis false. 350 

Nebular matter vapor — It could not burn 353 

If homogeneous, could not bum 354 

If liquid fire, the earth cooled first in the center 357 

Laws governing magnetics 360 

All power is mental 363 

Relation of cause and effect demonstrate creation 365 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Psychologic transmission of disease 

Contiguity produces races 370 

Comparative order of mind 373 

Mr. Darwin's shallow reasoning 377 

How the eyeless animals became such 379 

The absurdity of natural selection 383 

Mr. Darwin prophesies that all will be evolutionists 385 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xxi 

PAGE 

Nature cannot be arrayed against herself 387 

Man one of God's machines , 391 

Tyndall's admiration of his ancestral matter 393 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Deterioration, not progress, the order of nature 396 

Diseased air and mental impression 398 

An approaching crisis 410 

Evolution atheistic science 413 

CHAPTER XV. 

National degeneracy the voice of history. , 

Darwin's assumptions refuted 414 

Heathen philosophy corruptions of Scripture 419 

Ly ell's inconsistency in ignoring the Bible record 423 

National progress not the rule 426 

Rome never equaled Greece in virtue or intelligence 429 

A people never rise above their religion 433 

Plato's doctrine of the divine essence, deism 435 

Cook, of Boston, adopts Plato's doctrine of " life." 438 

Cookism destroys moral responsibility 441 

The lower animals depend upon man for subsistence and ex- 
istence 444 

The world with man extinct 447 



INTRODUCTION. 



If the searcher after truth succeeds in compassing his 
object, he must divest himself of every prejudice and 
preconceived opinion, whether they have been adopted 
on the principle of authority or have resulted from his 
own investigations. This must be done at least to an 
extent that will not bias his mind in reaching conclu- 
sions. Hence an author may differ with every previous 
writer upon the same subject as well as with what he him- 
self has written. Instead, however, of such a course 
being in the least degree reprehensible, it deserves the 
highest praise ; and he who does not merit it is a mere 
unprogressive petrifaction in the world of mind. The 
only conception of truth commensurate with its native 
dignity is that it comprehends the facts, phenomena, and 
object of the universe ; at least those connected with our 
world. 

One of the commonest errors into which scientists 
and theologians have fallen has been the practice of 
blindly following each other, not in the examination of 
the evidences or processes by which previous authors 
arrived at conclusions, but by the adoption of the con- 
clusions themselves. In order to avoid such a course 
only one way is open, and that is independent and im- 
partial investigation. 

If the supposition were admissible, that the authors 
of the works on science, systems of philosophy, or the 
xxiii 



XXIV INTRODUCTION. 

theology of the past, were better qualified to form correct 
opinions than those of the present, then might there have 
been none but the first book on each subject written ; 
but if the thought of the world cannot afford to be thus 
hampered, then such opinions, from whatever source 
they may have originated, should not be considered as a 
feather's weight in defense of any theory. That which 
alone has importance to us is, What evidence do they 
give, and are their reasonings conclusive ? God has in 
vested every man with the prerogative of judging for 
himself, and holds him responsible for its judicious ex- 
ercise. The concurrent opinions, therefore, of all the 
geological evolutionists of all time, to the effect that the 
world came into existence by what are called " the laws 
of nature," furnish not a particle of evidence in support 
of such a theory ; and yet Sir Charles Lyell fills a large 
portion of his " Principles of Geology" with quotations 
from ancient and modern writers on natural science, as 
authority for some of the most important principles he 
attempts to defend, even quoting from heathen deities. 
Take the following as an example : Vishnu, one of the 
persons in the Brahma or Hindoo deity, assumed the 
form of a fish, a tortoise, and a boar, of which Lyell 
says, " Extravagant as may be some of the conceits and 
fictions which disfigure these pretended revelations, we 
can by no means look upon them as a pure effort of the 
unassisted imagination, or believe them to have been 
composed without regard to opinions and theories on the 
observation of nature." 

Of course this is not imagination, though mere non- 
sense, for it presents Darwin's theory of the evolution of 
the organic world, now adopted by Lyell. The boar was 
once a tortoise, the tortoise a fish, and the fish was the 
deity. While such has been the history of scientific dis- 



INTRODUCTION. XXV 

cussions, so provocative of opposition, and though 
theology has been equally narrow in its conceits — adopt- 
ing many of its tenets from heathen authors — as well as 
intolerant in its spirit, it has this example as its apology. 
The above remark of Lyell pays more respect and ex- 
presses more confidence in this opinion of a scribe of a 
heathen deity than can be found in his whole book in re- 
gard to the revelations of Moses, or of the living God of 
Moses. 

No Antagonism between Science and Scripture. 

The unnatural warfare against real science and philos- 
ophy — which simply means the methods of God in the 
physical world — can have no justifiable defense except 
on the preposterous supposition of antagonism in re- 
vealed truth, or that the works and teachings of God are 
hostile to each other, and also to himself. Those who 
entertain such a supposition have been either too indolent 
to study the book of nature, or too superstitious to learn 
the written book of God. Hence for many of the opin- 
ions of the theologians the Bible is no more responsible 
than is nature for the great mass of the opinions relating 
to the so-called sciences of geology and evolution. As 
the result of a conflict of such vast dimensions, is it won- 
derful that the religious world should have been cursed 
with its thousand years of " dark ages," or the modern 
scientific world with Lyell's geology and Darwin's evolu- 
tion ? The remedy for this evil is that such a knowledge 
of both the great books of Nature and the Bible shall 
be obtained as shall show them to be complements of 
each other, and therefore springing from a common 
source. 

It is true that the theologians of our day have ostensi- 
bly repudiated the intolerance of the past ; but in their 



XXVI INTRODUCTION. 

new-born liberality they have adopted a sentiment still 
more pernicious and ruinous to the cause of Bible truth, 
namely, that it matters not what a man believes, if he is 
only sincere and honest in his faith. 

If such is the fact, then it supercedes all further neces- 
sity of promulgating revealed truth, which comprehends 
the knowledge of God's designs with man and the world. 
So widely prevalent is this monstrous opinion, that when 
a discourse is to be delivered upon the revealed will of 
God, it is generally prefaced by an apology for preach- 
ing a doctrinal sermon. What would be thought of a 
teacher of science or philosophy who should be perpet- 
ually telling his pupils that it mattered not what were 
their scientific or philosophical views, or how widely 
those held by one might differ from those held by an- 
other, if they were only honest, sincere, charitable, and 
liberal minded ? 

Prof. Max Muller says : *'The question of the descent 
of man may be called the question of the nineteenth cen- 
tury ; and it requires all the knowledge of the century 
to answer it adequately." 

Prof. Tyndall says : " The religious sentiment is the 
problem of problems of the present day." 

Notwithstanding the difficulty and danger here ex- 
pressed, and which no reflecting mind can fail to com- 
prehend, the flippant saying is as ostentatious as it is 
common, " We have no fears for the success of Chris- 
tianity," when the lamentable and momentous fact is, that 
Christianity fails in every instance by the adoption of 
any sentiment hostile to the Bible, as the man who 
adopts it fails to answer the end for which he was made ; 
especially when he denies that God created him, and is 
not therefore the proprietor of his being, and he conse- 
quently owes Him no service. They seem to confound 



INTRODUCTION. XXVU 

Christianity with the systems and institutions of men, 
the very existence of which may be endangered by their 
organized opposition ; and because in some countries 
there is no such opposition, it is taken as evidence of its 
success ; while this very care of nations, giving it popu- 
larity, has been and is its most deadly enemy, corrupting 
it by the inculcation of the sentiment we have indicated, 
while on the other hand the fires of persecution have 
always proved the purification of its adherents. 

The Necessity of Controversy. 

Even the attempts to defend its truths by public con- 
troversy at the present day is supposed to injure them, 
while the example of its Founder, who provoked and 
engaged in controversy, stands out as one of the most 
conspicuous facts of his earthly history. He argued not 
merely with the learned Scribes, Pharisees, priests, and 
lawyers, but set forth his doctrines to so humble a lis- 
tener as the " woman of Samaria ; " the subject, too, in 
this instance being upon the nature of God and that of 
his worship. Whoever received a letter from the great 
Apostle of the Gentiles, or heard one of his public dis- 
courses, but heard and saw a continual stream of doc- 
trinal controversy ? Nor did he wait for the opposers of 
the gospel to begin the attack, but in obedience to the 
mandate of the Master, '' Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature," he carried the war 
into the camps and citadels of the enemy, disputing with 
the Platonic philosophers, superstitious Jews, and Pagan 
idolators, and never failing to produce conviction of the 
truth of his doctrine and of the divine authority of his 
mission. Nothing is more erroneous than the notion 
that controversy was to be limited to the first age after 
Christ's ascension. If it had Jews to convince then, it 



XXVIU INTRODUCTION. 

has more Jews now. If the gospel had Pagan idolatry to 
meet then, it has more Pagans now ; for in addition it has 
to encounter Mohammedans and Spiritualists. If it suc- 
cessfully met Grecian philosophy with the preaching of 
"Jesus and the resurrection," it has a more subtle 
philosophy to encounter now in the shape of evolution 
and geology ; the first claiming to have found the origin 
of the animal and vegetable life of the world in the sim- 
plest form of inanimate matter, while the second sees 
the nebulae resolve itself into the solar system without 
the touch of an intelligent finger, thus presenting us with 
the most perfect form of materialistic skepticism. 

" Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." — 
Paul. 



COSMOGONY. 



CHAPTER I. 

INDEPENDENCE OF MIND NECESSARY TO ARRIVE AT 
TRUTH. 

False Impressions of Human Knowledge and Learned 

Men. 

There is, perhaps, no sentiment or supposition enter- 
tained by mankind which has acted so fatally against 
the progress of human knowledge and its general acqui- 
sition as its supposed profundity and vast extent, and 
that those esteemed learned men have explored this 
great ocean and made its lore their own. We do not 
speak of the facts of history, which to any considerable 
extent no man lives long enough even to read, but a 
knowledge of nature — her inorganic structure, organic 
classification, her motions ; the laws by which they are 
governed ; the nature of those laws ; the extent of recip- 
rocal dependence ; the grand object her combined 
machinery accomplishes, and how all became endowed 
with these forces and susceptibilities ; where is the limit 
between the natural (her capabilities) and the super- 
natural (that of which she is incapable) : in a word, 
the philosophy of science. 

Nomenclature — the simple names of things, either sim- 
ilar or dissimilar — is no part of this knowledge. A man 
29 



30 COSMOGONY. 

might be able to memorize the name of every existing 
object, and yet not know the chemical relation of any 
two of them. Neither is mathematics a part of such 
knowledge. It is simply the art of using conventional 
signs whereby the comparative size, distance, and rapid- 
ity of the motion of the objects of nature may be ascer- 
tained and stated. A man may have in his memiory the 
figures representing the sizes, distances from each other, 
and the velocities of every one of the objects of nature, 
and yet not have a knowledge of the peculiar qualities 
of any of these objects or of the influence which it is 
capable of exerting upon another, affecting its phases 
and motions, or have the least conception of the necessi- 
ties involved as to the time or manner of such endow- 
ment. Indeed, there have been men who by mental 
arithmetic could solve any problem in figures put to 
them, and yet were almost idiotic upon every other sub- 
ject, and utterly incapable of forming an abstract idea. 

Nor is the commitment to memory of historic facts, 
knowledge ; but this comes by thought, reflection, and 
investigation of the teaching of those facts by which the 
statesman learns by their repeated concurrence to depend 
upon them to produce substantially the same results. 
Hence we say " history repeats itself." Neither is lan- 
guage a part of such knowledge. It has been correctly 
said that " words are signs of ideas ; " but it must be re- 
membered that they are only such by conventionality. 
A child may learn to repeat words, and read them ; and 
while others are able to comprehend the ideas thus con- 
veyed, the speaker or reader may not apprehend a single 
one of the ideas himself. The art of language simply 
qualifies its possessor to obtain other men's ideas, spoken, 
written, or printed ; and if a single one of these ideas 
were only contained in a book written in a language for- 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 3 1 

eign to every living man, then it would be lost unless 
some one so far mastered that language as to be able to 
translate it into another which was known. But even 
this might be purely mechanical, so far as the translator 
was concerned. Language, therefore, can be considered 
in no other light than as a means of acquiring knowl- 
edge. 

It is probably a fact that there is not an idea of any 
considerable importance, written or printed, as a part of 
human knowledge in any foreign language which has not 
been translated into English. It is not necessary, there- 
fore, that an English student should study a dead lan- 
guage, or a living one other than his own, in order to be 
the most profound scholar, advanced scientist, and philos- 
opher that ever lived. Indeed, if he excel as a linguist, as 
did Burritt, life is consumed, and no time is left wherein 
to acquire knowledge. It is clearly inferable from Bur- 
ritt's biography that he could not make a public or pri- 
vate speech, unless it was first written, being so deficient 
in the practical use of his own tongue ; and never did 
he pretend to have discovered a single idea in any for- 
eign language or tongue which had not been already 
translated into English. We may state another important 
fact touching the subject, which is, that the last edition 
or work of a scientist or philosopher contains all he 
knows upon the subject ; and we may go still further, 
and say that the last extended work of this character 
contains all the knowledge extant up to that time. In 
relation to the number and size of the books necessary 
to contain the whole of the knowledge thus discrim- 
inated, we have no hesitancy in asserting that it could 
be printed in a single volume not larger than Webster's 
Unabridged Dictionary. We will go still further, and 
say that the book may be cut down at least one-half by 



32 COSMOGONY. 

leaving out that part of so-called natural science and 
philosophy which is purely speculative, utterly destitute 
of evidence ; and further still it may be cut down one 
half more by leaving out the purely hypothetical which 
have not been established by logical argument or demon- 
stration. 

Here then is a book one fourth the size of Webster's 
Dictionary having ample space to print the full discus- 
sion legitimately connected with every phenomenon of 
nature, the known teaching of every fact, the relative 
chemical effects of all compound bodies, agencies of dis- 
solution, specific gravities — in a word, the whole philoso- 
phy' and science of the universe, including the necessities 
of its origin and that of the existence of its " Great 
Original." If this be so, then no man need be intimi- 
dated by the existence of vast libraries of books through 
which he must wade in order to have a perfect knowl- 
edge of everything known about the natural science and 
philosophy of the universe. 

Ancient Philosophy^ Science^ and Libraries. 

That the notion of the vast progress of modern science 
may be exposed by comparison, we introduce here a con- 
densed view of what was known before the commence- 
ment of the Christian Era, and by heathen philosophers 
and scientists, which will also serve to confirm our posi- 
tion as to the limited compass in which it could all be 
written and printed. In the year 284 b. c. Ptolemy 
Philadelphus founded a library at Alexandria of 400,000 
valuable books in manuscript, which was nearly destroyed 
when Julius Caesar set fire to Alexandria, 47 b. c. A 
second library was formed from the remains of the first, 
at Alexandria, by Ptolemy's successors, consisting of 
700,000 volumes, which was totally destroyed by the 
Saracens, by the command of Omar, a. d. 642. 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 33 

Notwithstanding these vast collections of writings, it 
will be seen by what we are about to reiterate that all 
the real science, mixed with a vast proportion of specu- 
lation, was comprehended in a very few books. 

Aristotle on Morality — Plato on Virtue. 

" Lysis had the advantage of receiving the instruc- 
tion of men of the first order both in genius and learn- 
ing. Such were Isocrates and Aristotle, all friends of 
Apollodorus. One day Appollodorus thus addressed his 
son : * Hitherto I have made no attempt to fortify you in 
virtue systematically ; I have contented myself by mak- 
ing you practice it. It was proper to dispose your mind 
for the reception of these lessons, as we prepare the earth 
before we scatter the seeds by which it is enriched. You. 
shall now call me to account for the sacrifices I have 
sometimes required from you ; and I will enable you to 
justify to yourself those you may be obliged to make 
hereafter.' 

" Aristotle had brought with him several works, some 
of which he had merely outlined, that treated mostly on 
the science of morals, and upon which he commented as 
he read : All modes of life, all our actions, have a par- 
ticular end in view ; and all those ends tend to one gen- 
eral object, which is happiness. It is not in the end we 
propose, but in the choice of means, that we deceive our- 
selves. How often do honor, riches, power, and beauty 
prove more hurtful than useful to us ? How often has 
experience taught us that disease and poverty are not in 
themselves injurious. Thus, from the idea we form of 
good and evil, as much as from the inconstancy of our 
will, we almost always act without knowing what it is we 
ought most to desire, or what it is we ought most to 
dread. 



34 COSMOGONY. 

" To distinguish real from apparent good is the object 
of morality, which unfortunately does not proceed like 
the sciences limited to theory. If we wish our decisions 
to be wise and just, let us consider our own feelings, and 
acquire a just idea of our passions, virtues, and vices. Of 
all the qualities of the mind, wisdom is the most eminent, 
and prudence the most useful. As there is nothing so 
great in the universe as the universe itself, the sages who 
ascend to its origin, and study the incorruptible essences 
of all beings, are entitled to the first rank in our esteem. 
Such were Anaxagoras and Thales. They have trans- 
mitted to us admirable and sublime ideas, but which are 
of no importance to our happiness ; for wisdom has only 
an indirect influence on morals : wisdom consists wholly 
in theory, prudence in practice. [Xenophon says Socrates 
gives the name of wisdom to the virtue which Aristotle 
here calls prudence. Plato likewise occasionally gives 
it the same appellation.] . 

Wisdom and Virtue Contrasted. 

" In a family wq see the master confide to a faithful 
steward the minute particulars of domestic government, 
that he may apply himself to more important affairs. 
Thus wisdom, absorbed in profound meditations, relies 
on prudence to regulate our propensities, and to govern 
that part of the soul in which, as I have said, the moral 
virtues reside. 

" This moral part of the soul is continually agitated by 
love, hatred, anger, desire, fear, envy, and a multitude of 
other passions, all the seeds of which we bring into the 
world. Their motions, which are caused by the attrac- 
tion of pleasure or fear of pain, are almost always irregu- 
lar and fatal. In the same manner as the want of exer- 
cise or the excess of it destroys the body, so does a pas- 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 35 

sionate emotion, either too weak or too violent, lead 
astray the mind, leaving it short of or urging it beyond 
the mark it ought to have in view ; whilst a well regu- 
lated emotion conducts it naturally to the object. It is 
the medium therefore between two vicious affections that 
constitutes a virtuous sentiment. Let us give an ex- 
ample : Cowardice fears everything and errs by defi- 
ciency ; presumption fears nothing and errs by excess ; 
courage, which adopts the medium between the two, 
fears only when it is necessary to fear. Thus, passions 
of the same nature produce three different affections, 
two vicious and one virtuous. Thus do moral virtues 
arise from the very bosom of the passions, or rather they 
are no other than passions restrained within due limits. 

" Aristotle now showed us a writing in three columns, 
where most of the virtues were placed between two ex- 
tremes : liberality between avarice and prodigality ; 
friendship between aversion or hatred and complaisance 
or flattery, etc. A man may be more or less cowardly, 
more or less liberal, but there is only one manner in 
which he can be perfectly liberal and courageous ; ac- 
cordingly we have very few words to signify each virtue, 
but a considerable number for every vice. Hence the 
Pythagoreans say that evil partakes of the infinite and 
good of the nature of the finite. But by what means shall 
we discover this good, which is almost imperceptible 
amid the evils that surround it? Prudence, which I 
shall sometimes call reason, because, uniting the light of 
experience to the natural light of reason, it rectifies the 
one by the other. The function of prudence is to point 
out to us the path in which we are to walk, and to 
restrain as much as possible such of our passions as 
might induce us to wander from it. 

" Prudence on all occasions deliberates on the advan- 



S6 COSMOGONY. 

tages we should pursue, advantages difficult to know, and 
should be relative not only to ourselves but to others. 
Deliberation should be followed by a voluntary choice, 
without which it would deserve only pity or indulgence. 
The choice is free whenever we are not constrained to 
act against our judgment by external force, or hurry 
away by inexcusable ignorance. Thus an action, the 
object of which is honorable, should be preceded by de- 
liberation and by choice to make it, properly speaking, an 
act of virtue ; and this act, by frequent repetition, forms 
in our mind a habit which I shall call virtue. Nature 
neither gives nor denies us any virtue : she grants us 
only faculties, leaving the use of them to ourselves. 
And while she has sown in our hearts the seeds of every 
passion, she has implanted likewise those of every virtue. 
We receive, consequently, at our birth an aptitude more 
or less approaching a virtuous disposition, a propensity 
more or less strong toward what is good and just, 

" Hence we perceive an essential difference between 
what we sometimes denominate natural virtue and vir- 
tue properly so called= The former is that propensity I 
have mentioned ; a sort of instinct, unenlightened as yet 
by reason, wavering between good and evil ; the latter is 
the same instinct, constantly directed toward good by 
right reason, and always acting with knowledge, choice, 
and perseverance. I conclude from hence that virtue is 
a habit formed, in the first instance, and afterward 
guided by prudence, or a natural impulse toward good, 
transformed by prudence or reason into habit. It is in 
our power, then, to become virtuous, since we all possess 
the possibility to become so ; but it does not depend on 
us to become the most virtuous of men, unless that indi- 
vidual has received from nature the disposition requisite 
to such a degree of perfection. 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 37 

" Since prudence, or right reason, forms in us the 
habit of virtue, all the virtues become her work ; whence 
it follows that in a mind docile to her dictates not a vir- 
tue but presents and places itself in its proper rank, and 
not one will be found in opposition to another. In such 
a mind, too, we must discover a perfect harmony be- 
tween reason and the passions, since the former com- 
mands and the latter obeys. 

" If such virtue be not yet matured, the sacrifice it may 
require will afflict us ; if complete, those sacrifices will 
afford us the purest joy ; for virtue has its voluptuous- 
ness. It is impossible for children to be virtuous, as 
they are unable to distinguish or prefer real good ; yet 
as it is essential to cherish in them the propensity to vir- 
tue, they should be early accustomed to virtuous ac- 
tions. 

Difference between Natural and Moral Virtue, 

" Let us consider virtue in its relation to ourselves and 
others. The virtuous man finds hi§ enjoyment in dwell- 
ing and living with himself. You will find in his soul 
neither the remorse nor tumult which agitate the vicious. 
He is happy in the recollection of the good he has done, 
and in the prospect of that he may yet do. He enjoys 
his own esteem by obtaining the esteem of others ; he 
'seems to act only for them. His whole life is spent in 
useful activity ; he therefore possesses happiness, which 
consists only in a series of virtuous actions. This is the 
happiness arising from an active life dedicated to the du- 
ties of society. But there is another kind of happiness 
of a superior order, exclusively reserved for the 
small number of sages who, far from the tumult of 
worldly affairs, resign themselves to a life of contempla- 
tion. 



38 COSMOGONV. 

" In the conversations held in presence of Lysis, Isoc- 
rates pleased his ear, Aristotle enlightened his mind, and 
Plato inflamed him. Plato sometimes explained to him 
the doctrine of Socrates, or laid before him his own ideal 
republic ; at others, he made him sensible that no real 
elevation, no perfect independence can exist but in a 
virtuous mind ; that happiness consists in the knowledge 
of the sovereign good, which is no other than God. 
Thus, while other philosophers held out no recompense 
for virtue but the public esteem and the transient happi- 
ness of this life, Plato presented him with the nobler 
support of that promised in the future. Virtue, says he, 
proceeds from God ; you can only acquire it by knowing 
yourself, by obtaining wisdom, and preferring yourself 
to what only appertains to you. 

God the Measure of Everything Good and Grand. 

"Follow me in my reasoning, Lysis. Your person, 
your beauty, your riches, are yours, but do not consti- 
tute you. Man consists wholly in his soul [himself]. 
To learn what he is and what he ought to be, he must con- 
sider himself in his intellectual powers — in that part 
which sparkles a ray of divine wisdom, a pure light, 
which will insensibly lead him to the source from whence 
it emanates. When he has fixed his eyes on this, and 
shall have contemplated that eternal standard of perfec- 
tion, he will feel that it is most important to his interest 
to imitate it in his own conduct, and to assimilate him- 
self to the divinity, at least so far as it is possible for so 
faint a copy to approach so sublime a model. God is 
the measure of everything ; there is nothing good or 
estimable in the world but what has some conformity to 
him. He is sovereignly wise, holy, and just ; and the 
only means of resembling and pleasing him is by filling 



. INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 39 

our minds with wisdom, justice, and holiness. Called 
to this high destiny, place yourself in the situation of 
those who, as the sages say, by virtues unite the heavens 
with the earth. Let your life afford the happiest condi- 
tions to yourself, and the sublimest spectacle to others — 
that of one in whom all the virtues are in perfect har- 
mony. 

" I have often spoken to you of the consequences 
arising from these truths, bound together, if I may ven- 
ture the expression, by reasons of iron and of adamant ; 
but I must remind you, before I conclude, that vice, be- 
sides that it degrades, is sooner or later consigned to the 
punishment it merits. God, as it has been said before 
our time, passes through the whole universe, holding in 
his hand the beginning, the middle, and the end of all 
beings. Justice attends his steps, ready to punish offenses 
committed against the divine law. The humble and 
modest man finds his happiness in observing this law : 
the .vain man disregards it, and God abandons him to 
his passions. For a time he retains his consequence in 
the eyes of the vulgar, but vengeance quickly overtakes 
him ; and if she spares him in this world she pursues him 
with redoubled fury in the next. It is not therefore by 
obtaining honors and the applause of men that we should 
endeavour to distinguish ourselves, but by laboring for 
the approbation of that dreadful tribunal which shall 
judge us hereafter. 

" Such were the discourses of Plato and Aristotle. 

" Pisistratus, two centuries past, had collected a library 
and opened it to the public, but it was afterward carried 
away by Xerxes into Persia. In my time several Athe- 
nians had collections of books ; but the most consider- 
able was that of Euclid [Euclid lived three hundred 
years before the Christian Era], who had received it 



40 COSMOGONY. 

from his ancestors, and who was worthy to possess it, 
since he understood its value. On entering this library 
I was struck with surprise and pleasure. I found my- 
self in the midst of the greatest geniuses of Greece, 
living in their works, with which I was surrounded. 
Their very silence increased my respect. An assembly of 
all the sovereigns of the earth would have appeared to 
me less awful, and I exclaimed. How much knowledge is 
here, which is denied the Scythian ! I have since said, 
more than once, Alas ! how much knowledge useless to 
man ! 

Library of Euclid. How they Made Books. 

" I shall not speak of all the various kinds of sub- 
stances which have been used to write upon. The skins of 
sheep and goats, and various sorts of linen, were success- 
ively employed. Paper has since come into use, made 
from the interior filaments of the stalk of a plant which 
grows in the marshes of Egypt or amid the stagnant 
waters left by the Nile after its inundations. It is made 
up into rolls, at the extremity of which is suspended a 
ticket containing the title of the book. The rolls are 
written only on one side, and to accommodate the reader 
are divided into several compartments or pages. There 
are copyists by profession, who pass their lives in tran- 
scribing the works which fall into their hands ; and 
others, for the sake of information, take this trouble on 
themselves. Demosthenes told me one day, that, in 
order to form his style he had eight times transcribed 
the history of Thucydides with his own hand. Copies 
are multiplied by this means, but are seldom very com- 
mon, being expensive — a circumstance which greatly 
retards the progress of knowledge. I have known Plato 
to pay a hundred mine (;£375 sterling) for three small 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 4I 

treatises by Philolaus. The Greeks are versed in every 
species of literature, as will appear by the accounts I am 
about to give of the library of Euclid. 

"I shall begin with the class of philosophy. The 
works of this class date no higher than the age of Solon, 
who lived near two hundred and fifty years ago. Prior 
to that time the Greeks had theologians, but no philoso- 
phers. Little anxious to study nature, the poets col- 
lected, and in their works gave a sanction to the reigning 
falsehoods and superstitions of the people. But in the 
time of this legislator, and toward the fiftieth Olympiad, 
an astonishing revolution took place in the minds of men. 
Thales and Pythagoras laid the foundation of their phil- 
osophy ; Cadmus of Miletus wrote history in prose; 
Thespis first gave a settled form to tragedy, as did Su- 
sarion to comedy. Thales of Miletus in Ionia, one of 
the seven sages of Greece, was born in the first year of 
the thirty-fifth Olympiad. In the early part of his life 
he filled with distinction the employments to which he 
was called by his birth and wisdom. 

" A thirst for knowledge soon induced him to travel 
into foreign countries. On his return, devoting himself 
exclusively to the study of nature, he astonished Greece 
by predicting a solar eclipse, and communicated the 
knowledge of geometry and astronomy, which he had 
acquired in Egypt. He enjoyed his reputation in peace, 
lived free, and died without regretting life. In his 
youth his mother pressed him to marry, and again re- 
peated her solicitation several years after. The first 
time he said it was too soon ; the second time, it was 
too late. Many of his sentences are still remembered, 
which I shall repeat, as they may give an idea of his 
philosophy, and show with what precision the sages of 
that age endeavored to answer the questions proposed 



42 COSMOGONY. 

to them. What is it that is most beautiful ? The uni- 
verse, for it is the work of God. What is the most pow- 
erful ? Necessity, because it triumphs over all things. 
What is the most difficult ? To know one's self. What 
is most easy ? To give advice. What is there that can 
best console us in misfortunes ? The sight of an enemy 
more unfortunate than ourselves. What method must 
we take to lead a good life ? To do nothing we would 
condemn in others. What is necessary to happiness ? A 
sound body, an easy fortune, and an enlightened mind. 

" Celebrated as the name of Pythagoras is, the partic- 
ulars of his life are little known. It appears that in his 
youth he took lessons of Thales and Pherecydes, of 
Ayros ; that he afterward resided a long time in Egypt, 
and if he did not actually visit the kingdoms of Upper 
Asia, he had at least some knowledge of sciences culti- 
vated in those countries. The profoundness of the 
Egyptian mysteries, and the abstract meditations of the 
sages of the East were equally well adapted to inflame 
his ardent imagination, as the austere mode of life which 
the greater part of them had embraced was congenial 
with the firmness of his character. On his return to his 
country, finding it enslaved by a tyrant, he went far 
from slavery to settle at Crotona, in Italy. This city 
was then in a deplorable situation ; the inhabitants, van- 
quished by the Locrians, had lost all sense of their native 
powers, and sought no other resource under their mis- 
fortunes than the excess of pleasure. 

Pythagoras — his Learning^ Persecution and Death. 

*' Pythagoras undertook to reanimate their courage by 
recalling to their memory their ancient virtues, and his 
instructions and example brought about their reforma- 
tion. He endeavored to render the good he had effected 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 43 

permanent, by educating the youth in the principles to 
which he owed his success. Knowing that nothing in- 
spires more energy in a state than wisdom and purity of 
morals, nor in an individual than perfect self-denial, he 
planned a system of education, which, to render the 
mind capable of receiving truth, taught it to be inde- 
pendent of the senses ; and he founded that celebrated 
institution which still stands pre-eminent among all other 
philosophical sects. 

" Toward the end of his life, and in extreme old age, 
he had the affliction to see almost all that he had done 
rendered ineffectual by the jealousy of the leading citi- 
zens of Crotona. Obliged to take flight, he wandered 
from town to town until death terminated his misfor- 
tunes, reduced envy to silence, and procured honors to 
his memory, which were carried to an extravagant 
length from the remembrance of the persecution he had 
suffered. The Ionian school owes its origin to Thales ; 
the Italian to Pythagoras : both of these schools have 
given birth to others, which have all in their turn pro- 
duced great men. Euclid, when collecting their produc- 
tions, had been attentive to rank them according to the 
different systems of philosophy. After some treatises, 
which were attributed to Thales, followed the works of 
those who have taught his doctrine, and were succes- 
sively at the head of his school. These were Anaxi- 
mander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, who first taught 
philosophy at Athens, and Archelaus, who was the first 
master of Socrates. Their writings treat of the forma- 
tion of the universe, or the nature of things, of geometry 
and astronomy. 

Socrates' Manner of Teaching. 
" The different works that next followed were more 



44 COSMOGONY. 

connected with morals ; for Socrates and his disciples 
bestowed their attention less on nature in general than 
on man in particular. Socrates has. left nothing in writ- 
ing but a hymn in honor of Apollo, and some fables of 
^sop which he put into verse while he was in prison. 
I found here both these little pieces, with the works that 
have proceeded from his school. The latter are almost 
all in the form of dialogues, in which Socrates is the 
principal interlocutor, it being the object of his disciples 
to record his conversations. I saw the dialogues of 
Plato, Xenophon, etc. The Italian school has produced 
a much greater number of authors than the Ionian. 
Besides treatises ascribed to Pythagoras and which do 
not appear to be authentic, Euclid was in possession of 
almost all the writings of the philosophers who have fol- 
lowed or modified his doctrine. The Italian school, he 
said, had diffused more knowledge over the world than 
the Ionian, but it had committed errors from which its 
rival was exempt. The two great men who founded 
them stamped the character of their genius on their 
works : Thales, distinguished for profound sense, had 
for his disciples sages who studied nature in the simplest 
manner ; and his school produced Anaxagoras, and the 
soundest theology ; Socrates, the purest morals. 

" Pythagoras, under the influence of a lively imagina- 
tion, established a sect of pious enthusiasts, who at first 
beheld nothing in nature but harmonies and proportions ; 
and passing from one species of fiction to another, gave 
birth to the Elean school and the most abstract meta- 
physics. 

Discourse of Callias in Euclid's Library. 

" The works of these writers were also accompanied 
by many others : and whilst I was congratulating Euclid 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 45 

on possessing so valuable a collection, I saw a man, ven- 
erable from his countenance, his age and deportment, 
enter the library. His hair flowed upon his shoulders, 
and his brow was bound with a diadem and a crown of 
myrtle : this was Callias, the hierophant, or high priest 
of Ceres, the intimate friend of Euclid, who introduced 
me to him. After some moments' conversation, I re- 
turned to my books with an eagerness which did not 
escape Callias. He asked me whether it would give me 
pleasure to acquire some idea of the doctrines they con- 
tained. I will answer you with vivacity, as one of my 
ancestors formerly did Solon : I have quitted Scythia, 
I have traversed immense countries, and braved the tem- 
pest of the Euxine Sea, only to come and seek instruc- 
tion among you. I am going to devote myself to these 
writings of your sages : and from their labors shall un- 
doubtedly learn those sublime truths essential to the 
happiness of man. Callias smiled at my determination, 
whether with a mixture of compassion or not, we shall 
judge by the following discourse. 

" * I once dreamed,' said Callias, ' that I was suddenly 
transported into a high road, in the midst of an immense 
multitude, composed of persons of all ages, sexes, and 
conditions. We pressed forward with rapid steps, each 
with a bandage over his eyes ; some uttering shouts of 
joy, but the greater part oppressed with chagrin and 
weariness. I interrogated those around me ; and was 
answered by some. We are as ignorant as yourself, but 
we follow those who go before us, and others follow us. 
Some again replied. What signify these questions to us ? 
You see these people who press upon us, and we must on 
our part repulse them. Those who were more enlight- 
ened said, The gods have ordained us to run this race, 
and we obey their commands, without either participat- 



46 COSMOGONY. 

ing in the idle joy or sharing in the fruitless sorrow of 
the multitude. I was hurrying away with the crowd, 
when I heard a voice exclaiming, This is the path of 
knowledge and of truth. I turned and hastily followed 
it, when a man, seizing me by the hand, took off my 
bandage and led me into a forest, where I could see no 
better than when I was blinded. We soon lost all traces 
of the path in which we were before, and met with a great 
number of persons who had likewise lost themselves. 
The guides of each never fell in with one another with- 
out coming to blows, for it was the interest of each to 
seduce as many followers as possible from the rest ; they 
carried torches in their hands, and kept shaking them in 
order to dazzle us with the sparks. I often changed my 
conductor, and as often fell among precipices ; frequently, 
too, I found myself stopped by a thick wall, in which 
cases my guides disappeared, leaving me in all the horror 
of despair. Exhausted by fatigue, and lamenting I had 
ever quitted the road followed by the multitude, I awoke. 
" ' O my son,' pursued Callias, ' men lived for many 
ages in a state of ignorance which left their reason at 
peace ! Contented with the confused traditions trans- 
mitted to them concerning the origin of things, they 
lived happy without seeking to enlarge the sphere of 
their knowledge. But for these last two hundred years, 
agitated by a secret inquietude, they have endeavored to 
penetrate the mysteries of nature, of which they had 
heretofore entertained no doubts ; and this new malady 
of the human mind has substituted great errors for great 
prejudices. When it was discovered that the Supreme 
Being, the universe, and man, were sublime objects of 
meditation, the mind of the observer seemed to acquire 
new elevation : for nothing inspires more elevated or 
more extensive ideas than the study of nature ; and as 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND.. 47 

the ambition of the mind of man is as active and insatia- 
ble as that of the heart, they wished to measure space, 
to fathom infinity, and to pursue the windings of that 
chain which in the immensity of its folds embraces all 
things and beings, 

" ' In examining this enormous collection before us, 
where excess of delirium is joined to the depth of wis- 
dom, where man has at once displayed the strength and 
weakness of his reason, remember, my son, that nature is 
concealed under a veil which the united efforts of man 
can never penetrate ; and that the science of philoso- 
phy consists in discerning the point where mystery be- 
gins and its wisdom in revering that mystery. Ask the 
different philosophers. What is God ? they will answer 
you. That which has neither beginning nor end ; a pure 
spirit ; a subtle matter — air ; a fire endowed with intelli- 
gence ; the world — no, the soul of the world to which he 
is united, etc. O, my son ! adore God, and seek not to 
know him. Waste not your time in studying the nature 
of the universe, but employ it as becometh you, and 
worthily fulfill the little space that is allotted you. Ask 
them. What is man ? they will answer, Man exhibits the 
same phenomena and the same contradictions as the uni- 
verse, of which he is the abstract. 

The Ideas invented by Men a Real Dearth, 

" * The abundance of ideas which men have invented 
on the most important subjects of philosophy is in effect 
a real dearth ; and that pile of learning you have before 
your eyes, those pretended treasures of sublime knowl- 
edge, are nothing more than a wretched heap of errors 
and contradictions. O my son, what strange knowledge 
have these celebrated men, who pretend to have brought 
nature under subjection ! How humiliating would be 



48" COSMOGONY. 

the study of philosophy, if, after beginu*-.ig with doubts, 
it must terminate in parodies ! Let us, however, do jus- 
tice to those who have advanced them. In general they 
loved and sought the truth ; and thinking to discover it 
by means of abstract ideas, they were led astray by too 
implicitly following reason, with whose boundaries they 
were unacquainted. 

" ' It still remains for m.e to mention to you a system, 
as remarkable from its singularity as from the reputation 
of its author. The vulgar see nothing round the globe 
they inhabit but a vault shining with light during the 
day, and sparkling with stars during the night, and that 
these are the limits of the universe ; but some of our 
philosophers acknowledge no bounds, and they have been 
enlarged in our time to a degree that overawes and terrifies 
the imagination. The first idea was that the moon was 
inhabited : afterward that the stars were so many worlds, 
and that the number of these worlds must be infinite, 
since none of them could serve as a boundary or circum- 
ference to the others. What an extensive view does this 
open at once to the human mind ! How has this sub- 
lime theory aggrandized the universe in our eyes ! 
Though we employ eternity itself to traverse the immeasur- 
able space, still shall we find infinity ! And if it be true 
that the mind expands with our ideas, and assimilates in 
some measure with the object it penetrates, how greatly 
must man pride himself in having fashioned what is in 
itself so inconceivably profound ! ' 

" ' Pride himself ! ' exclaimed I, * and wherefore, most 
venerable Callias ? My mind is overwhelmed at the 
very idea of this boundless greatness, before which all 
other greatness is annihilated. You, myself, all man- 
kind, are no more in my eyes than insects in an immense 
ocean.' 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 49 

" At these words Callias looked earnestly at me, and 
after a moment's reflection replied, * My son, the insect 
which obtains a glimpse of such infinity partakes of the 
greatness which owerwhelms it." And, he might have 
added, because of the possession of this very faculty of 
observation, is absolutely greater than all this space and 
the inanimate, sightless, unknowing bodies within it : 
the comparative sublimity of the mechanism is displayed 
in the physiological structure of the most tiny animalcule 
that sees, feels, and moves of itself. 

Euclid on Astronomy — Gravity — Earth a Sphere. 

" ' It must be allowed,' said Euclid, * that we have made 
but few observations on this science, and still fewer dis- 
coveries in it. If we possess some accurate notions re- 
specting the course of the stars, we owe them to the 
Egyptians and Chaldeans, who taught us to form tables 
which fix the periods of our public solemnities and of 
our rustic labors.' 

" I testified my surprise that the Greeks, possessed of 
so much genius as they were, should be obliged to go 
in quest of information to distant countries. 

" ' Perhaps,' replied Euclid, ' we are not endowed with 
the talent of discovery, and our excellence may consist 
in embellishing and improving that of others. Besides,, 
it is but lately that we have turned our attention toward 
the heavens, whilst the Egyptians and Chaldeans haver 
persevered in calculating their motions for an incredible 
number of ages ; and the decisions of astronomy must 
be founded on observations.' 

" I requested he would give a general idea of the pres- 
ent state of the science. Euclid then took a sphere, and 
reminded me of the use of the different circles of which 
it was composed. He showed me a celestial planisphere. 



5© COSMOGONY. 

on which I discovered the principal stars distributed 
into different constellations. ' All stars,' added he, ' re- 
volve in the space of one day from east to west round 
the poles of the earth. Besides this motion, the sun, the 
moon, and the five planets have another which carries 
them from east to west in certain intervals of time. The 
sun passes through the 360 degrees of the ecliptic in one 
year, which contains, according to the calculation of 
Meton, 365 days and 5-19 of a day. 

" ' Each revolution of the moon contains 29 days, 12 
hours, 45 minutes. The 12 lunations consequently give 
354 days, and something more than the third of a day. 
In our civil year, which is the same as our lunar, we 
neglect this fraction, and suppose only 12 months, some 
of 30, others of 29, and in all 354 days. We next make 
our civil agree with our solar year, by means of seven 
intercalary months, which in the space of seventeen years 
we add to the 3d, 5th, 8th, 9th, loth, i6thand 19th years. 
We learned from the Babylonians,' continued he, * to 
divide the day into twelve parts, varying in length accord- 
ing to the difference of the seasons. These parts or 
hours, which name we now begin to give them, are 
marked for every month, on dials, with the length of the 
shadow corresponding to each of them. You know that, 
for any given month, the shade of the gnomon, when a 
certain number of feet in length, gives such or such a 
time of the day before or after noon ; and that when any 
business is fixed upon for the morning or evening, we 
appoint the time by referring to the tenth or twelfth foot 
of the shadow ; and this is the origin of the expression, 
What shade is it ? 

" * You know likewise that our slaves are sent from time 
to time to consult the public dial, to inform us of the 
hour. It has been remarked that, at the time of the 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 5 1 

solstices, the sun does not rise at the same point of the 
horizon ; from whence it has been concluded that he 
has latitude as well as the moon and planets. The plan- 
ets have celerities peculiar to themselves, and unequal 
years. Mercury and Venus complete theirs in the same 
time with the sun ; Mars finishes his in two years, Jupi- 
ter in twelve, and Saturn in thirty. The moon borrows 
her light from the sun ; the eclipses of the sun and 
moon no longer terrify the people, since our astronomers 
are able to predict them. It is demonstrated that some 
of the heavenly bodies are larger than the earth ; but I 
know not w^hether the diameter of the sun be nine times 
greater than that of the moon, as Eudoxus has asserted.' 
" After long traveling in the sky we returned to the 
earth. I observed to Euclid that we had not brought 
back many important truths after so long a journey. 

* We shall be more fortunate, no doubt,' continued I, 

* by confining ourselves to the globe we inhabit.' Euclid 
asked me how so ponderous a mass as the earth could 
maintain its equilibrium in the air. It is the same with 
the earth perhaps as the planets and stars. ' But,' said 
he, ' precautions have been taken to hinder them falling 
by attaching them to spheres extremely solid, but trans- 
parent ; these spheres turn, and the heavenly bodies re- 
volve with them, but we see nothing around us by which 
the earth can be suspended ; why, therefore, does it not 
plunge into the depth of the surrounding fluid ? Some 
say the reason is because it is not on every side environed 
by air ; the earth is like a mountain, the foundations or 
roots of which extend themselves into the infinite pro- 
fundity of space. We occupy the summit of this moun- 
tain, and may sleep in safety upon it. Others flatten 
the under part of it, that it may rest on a greater num« 
ber of columns of air, or float upon the waters. 



52 COSMOGONY. 

" * But in the first place it is almost proved to be of a 
spherical form ; and if we make choice of air to sustain 
it, that is too weak ; if of water, it may be asked. What 
does that rest upon ? Our natural philosophers have 
lately discovered a more simple method of calming our 
apprehensions. By virtue of a general law, say they, all 
heavenly bodies tend toward one great point, which is 
the center of the universe, the center of the earth. All 
the constituent parts of the earth, therefore, instead of 
flying off from this center, are continually pressing 
against each other to approach it.' 

What Euclid Knew of Geography. 

" When I inquired what were the countries know^r to 
the Greeks Euclid wished to refer me to the historians 
I had read ; but I urged him with so much earnestness 
that he at length continued as follows: ' Pythagoras and 
Thales first divided the heavens into five zones : two 
frozen, two temperate, and one extending to a certain 
distance on each side of the equator. In the last cen- 
tury Parmenides transferred the same division to the 
earth ; and it is marked on the sphere you have before 
you. Man can only subsist in a small part of the sur- 
face of the terraqueous globe ; the extremes of heat 
and cold not suffering him to inhabit the regions near 
the poles, or those adjoining to the equinoctial line ; 
they have multiplied only in temperate climates. To 
the north of the Euxine Sea we find the Scythian na- 
tions, some of which cultivate the earth, and others 
wander over their vast dominions. The countries still 
further are inhabited by different nations and tribes, and 
amoftg others by the Anthropophagi.' ' Who are not 
Scythians,' said I, eagerly. 'I know it' replied he; 
' and our historians have properly distinguished them ; 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 53 

beyond this barbarous people we suppose there are im- 
mense deserts. 

" * To the east, the conquests of Darius have made us 
acquainted with the nations which reach as far as the 
Indus. It is said that beyond that river there is another 
country, as extensive as all the rest of Asia, which is 
India : a very small part of it is subject to the kings of 
Persia, who annually draw from it a considerable tribute 
in gold-dust ; but of the rest we have no knowledge. 

"'Toward the northeast, beyond the Caspian Sea, 
dwell several nations, the names of which have been 
transmitted with the additional circumstance that some 
of them sleep six months together. [This must have 
grown out of the six months polar nights.] You will 
judge from these stories of our geographical knowledge. 
To the westward we have penetrated as far as the Pil- 
lars of Hercules, and have a confused idea of the na- 
tion inhabiting the east of Iberia, but to the interior- 
parts of the country we are utter strangers. Beyond 
these pillars is a sea called the Atlantic, which, from ap- 
pearance, extends as far as the eastern parts of India. It 
is frequented only by the ships of Tyre and Carthage, 
which are afraid to venture out of sight of land. After 
passing the straits some of them go southward, and sail 
along the coast of Africa ; others again go northward, 
to exchange their merchandise for the tin of Capiterides 
islands, the position of which is unknown to the Greeks. 

" * Several attempts have been made to extend geog- 
raphy to the southward. It is pretended that by order 
of Nicos, who reigned about two hundred and fifty years 
ago in Egypt, some vessels manned with Phoenicians 
took their departure from the Arabian Gulf, made the 
circuit of Africa, and returned after a voyage of two 
(years to Egypt, by the Straits of Cadir [Cadiz] ; but 



54 COSMOGONY. 

these enterprises, supposing this account to be true, have 
been no further prosecuted. Commerce was unable to 
repeat such long and dangerous voyages, in the hope of 
precarious advantages. Merchants have contented them- 
selves with frequenting the eastern and western coasts 
of Africa ; and on the latter the Carthaginians have 
established a considerable number of colonies. It is 
asserted likewise that several great nations exist in that 
part of the earth, but we are not told their names. Our 
mathematicians pretend that the circumference of the 
earth contains four hundred thousand stadia. [A stadium 
is a furlong]. I know not whether the estimate be just, 
but I am very sure we are scarcely acquainted with one 
quarter of its circumference.' " 

It may be said that astronomy was not materially 
advanced from the days of Euclid, 300 b. c, until the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by the appearance 
of Copernicus, 1530 ; Kepler, 1619 ; and Galileo, 1632. 

We have in this brief sketch all the ideas of nature, 
which they call the " philosophy of science," entertained 
by these philosophical scientists. Aristotle's classifica- 
tion of animals, founded simply upon the possession of 
peculiar organic features, cannot properly be called nat- 
ural science ; the only natural science connected with 
organic existence is that of the identity and phenomena 
of species. The origin of species does not come within 
the liriiits of natural science, as nature had nothing to do 
with it — ^nature commenced when creation was finished. 
Thus there was a period of 340 years, from 640 b. c, the 
time of Thales, to 300 b. c, the time of Euclid, during 
which these seven most prominent students of nature in 
ancient times flourished : Solon, 562 ; Pythagoras, 500 ; 
Socrates, 432 ; Xenophon, 410 ; Plato, 388 ; Aristotle, 



INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 55 

383 ; Euclid, 300. It is evident that each of these suc- 
cessive philosophers was acquainted with what his pre- 
decessors knew of. nature ; and Euclid, the last, under- 
stood it all, and in his library it was all recorded in 
books. It is also a fact that all these men went to Egypt, 
and were schooled in the learning of the Egyptians. 
They were also well acquainted with the science and 
philosophy of the Persian and Chaldean shools : all of 
which was also conserved in the library of Euclid. 

In the discourse of Callias, who had mastered the con- 
tents of these books, and knew the little of real worth 
they contained, when sifted from the mass of literary 
rubbish, we hear his decision, which cuts down the mass 
to such small dimensions that it could easily have been 
printed in an ordinary-sized book : we mean, what they 
contained of the true science and philosophy of nature. 
Says he, " In examining this enormous collection before 
us, the excess of delirium is joined to the depth of wis- 
dom. Man here has displayed at once the strength and 
weakness of his reason, leaving nature concealed under 
a veil. The abundance of ideas which men have invented 
on the most important subjects of philosophy, is in effect 
a real dearth j and the pile of learning you have before 
your eyes, those pretended treasures of sublime knowl- 
edge, are nothing more than a wretched heap of errors and 
contradictions. '" If we compare Lyell's philosophy of 
the earth, called " Geology," with that of these philoso- 
phers, his is the " wretched heap ; " Darwin's " Descent 
of Man " with Plato's "Formation of the World," Dar- 
win's is the "wretched heap," and Prof. Proctor's phi- 
losophy of astronomy, of fiery origin, with the astronomy 
of Euclid, Proctor's is the " wretched heap." 

This then is all the knowledge the ancients had of 
natural science. We feel assured that no one will dissent 



56 COSMOGONY. 

from our conclusion, that as Lyell, Darwin, and Proctor 
are the most intelligent representatives of these different 
hypotheses, and their last defenders, that their writings 
contain all the ideas of natural science which have ever 
been entertained concerning the philosophy of nature, 
circumscribed within nature itself. If this be correct, 
we see that these books would form but an exceeding 
small library. ■ But these must be still further cut down 
by leaving out all the speculations, all the opinions un- 
supported by evidence, all the quotations of each other 
as authority, and all the substantial repetitions they con- 
tain, and we hesitate not to say that a single book would 
contain what remains. From such data and calculation 
it is evident that all the real science and philosophy of 
the known facts of nature could be printed in a few small 
volumes. 

In this chapter, therefore, we end where we began, by 
the opinion that were such a book published, men fol- 
lowing the ordinary vocations of life would have ample 
time to make themselves masters of its contents, and there- 
fore might be ranked as the most advanced scientists 
and philosophers of the present age, and therefore of the 
world. Let these men once rise to the dignity of con- 
scious mental power, with brains sustained by strong 
muscular development, and it would be a fatal check to 
the groundless speculations of these scientific pretenders, 
whose ambition seems to be governed by no higher prin- 
ciple than that of public notoriety, and this at the ex- 
pense of truth, and especially in opposition to the teach- 
ings of the Holy Scriptures. 



CHAPTER II. 

BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION THE MOST ADVANCED 
SCIENCE. 

Though the ancient astrologists or astronomers were 
ignorant of the globular form of the earth, even down to 
a late day in Grecian history, yet this was stated to be 
its form in the Bible long before, and in such language 
as the following : " When he (God) prepared the 
heavens, when he set a coinpass upon the face of 
the earth" (Pro v. 8 : 27) ; striking out its globular 
dimensions. " He sitteth upon the circle of the earth " 
(Isa. 40 : 22) ; then the earth was a sphere. " He 
walketh in the circuit of heaven " [atmosphere] (Job 
22 : 14). Then it also was a circle. It is but a late dis- 
covery of science that the winds blow in circles, and 
that the great trade-wind of the torrid zone blows from 
the same quarter throughout the year : on the north 
side of the equator, in the direction of N.E. to S.W., 
and on the south side, from S.E. to N.W., showing that 
it moves continually in a circle, which movement is prob- 
ably governed by the ecliptic motion of the earth. This 
scientific fact is stated in the Bible thus: ** The wind 
goeth toward the south and turneth about unto the 
north ; it whirleth about continually, and the wind re- 
turneth again according to his circuits " (Eccl. i : 6). 
When ancient astronomy was pressed with the question 
as to what the world stood on, it answered. Four ele- 
phants ; and sometimes. On a great rock. When asked 
to explain what the rock stood on, the answer returned 
57 



58 COSMOGONY. 

was such as the evolutionists give vrhen asked, Whence 
came the primordial? "Why, rocks all the way down." 
The Bible statement, however, is unequivocal upon this 
phenomenon, and in perfect accord with the most ad- 
vanced astronomical science of our day, giving expres- 
sion to the wonderful results of universal gravity thus : 
"He hangeth the earth upon nothing" (Job 26 : 7), 
The running of locomotives and trains of cars is an 
event of such magnitude that it would be reasonable to 
expect that a Being who has caused the prominent events 
of human history to be written in advance would have 
made mention of it, and such is the fact ; hence we 
read, " The chariots shall be with flaming torches, in the 
day of his preparation. The chariots shall rage in the 
streets. They shall jostle one against another in the 
broadways : they shall seem like torches, they shall run 
like lightnings " (Nahum 2 : 3, 4). It is not horses and 
chariots, but chariots which thus run. 

The electric telegraph, the greatest scientific discovery 
of our age or of any other, is also of such importance to 
the world that it would be strange if no allusion should 
have been made to the possibility of sending lightning 
dispatches and returning answers. Hence God said to 
Job, " Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and 
say unto thee, Here we are. We answer the call, and are 
ready for the dispatch " (chap. 38 : 35). It is just as 
we might suppose : if the God of nature is the God of 
the Bible, then all of his statements are not only in har- 
mony with each other, but are those of the most ad- 
vanced science, whether of a moral, mental, physical, or 
religious character. But the impossibility of there being 
any community between the cosmological science of the 
Bible and evolution or chronological geology imposes 
upon those who believe in its system of revealed religion 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 59 

the necessity of entering the arena of scientific investi- 
gation, with a thorough knowledge of the questions it in- 
volves, that they may be able to say with Paul, '' I am 
set for the defense of the gospel, and become able to de- 
fend it against all opposition." 

Truth a System — One Department Explains Another, 

Truth is a circle — a system requiring at least some 
knowledge of the whole in order to be able to compre- 
hend any part ; whence it follows that those whose re- 
searches have been confined to one of its divisions must 
be extremely liable to arrive at erroneous conclusions. 
For instance, man is constitutionally a moral and re- 
ligious being as well as an animal ; and as these several 
endowments indicate the object of his being, it follows 
that each must be studied if we would obtain proper 
views of his nature and destiny ; and it is equally a fact 
that all these come within the scope of natural philoso- 
phy, and constitute the Science of Man. If this be so, 
we would ask, By what right is a man entitled to the dis- 
tinction of an advanced philosopher or scientist whose 
investigations have been limited to the mere animal 
nature of man, which can be considered in no other 
light than the necessary foundation upon which is erected 
his intellectual and moral nature ? What idea of a man- 
sion could a man have whose mind was absorbed and 
contented with a knowledge of the foundation ? 

Nothing is more erroneous than the notion that the 
revealed religion of the Bible should be held responsible 
for and confounded with all the religious sentiments en- 
tertained in all time. The only question with which its 
defenders have to do is, *' What saith the Scriptures ? " 
" To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not 
according to this word it is because there is no light in 



6o COSMOGONY. 

them " (Isa.). In what an attitude would the philoso- 
phers and scientists of to-day appear were they held 
responsible for all the notions of the past called science 
and philosophy, or even for all those entertained at the 
present time ? Is it possible to reduce all these so-called 
interpretations of nature to anything like a system ? 

So-called Science More Contradictory than Religion. 

On the contrary it is an undeniable fact that what 
has been called philosophy from the dawn of civilization 
down to the present day reveals a more absurd and ludi- 
crous picture than all the notions and theories enter- 
tained by the religionists of the world who claim the 
Bible as authority. The philosophers ask with an air of 
self-complacency, How are we to understand what are 
the teachings of the Bible amid such diversity of inter- 
pretation ? But may we not retort with equal pertinency, 
What are we to receive as scientific truth — not to be 
modified or abandoned in the future — among the diver- 
sity of interpretations, held, too, by the most advanced 
scientists of the age, and relating to fundamental prin- 
ciples ? As an example, take Sir Charles Lyell's last 
work, " Principles of Geology," between which and his 
former works there are palpable contradictions of the 
interpretations of nature. Which are we to receive as 
science ? Among the many " geneses " of the world 
called science, which is the true one ? One contends 
that our globe was once in a gaseous state : that by the 
gases entering into combination, evolving heat, a glow- 
ing, fusing, fiery mass was produced, which, whirling in 
space, and cooling, until a palpable crust was formed 
upon the surface, assumed the shape it now has. This 
then was the first genesis of the world, and was once be- 
lieved by Lyell himself, and is the theory of Mr. Hop- 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 6l 

kins, of Cambridge, England, once president of the Geo- 
logical Society. Next comes the evolution genesis of 
Darwin ; and Lyell adopts that also. Now, which of 
these scientific interpretations of nature's method of 
bringing herself into existence are we to accept ? There 
is also the glacial theory of Prof. Agassiz, which, if it 
did not bring the world into existence, brought it from 
a nascent state into a condition suitable for the abode of 
man, or showed it to have been in such a state while 
man inhabited it. Thus we have the self-burning, self- 
freezing, and the self-evolving genesis of the world from 
nebulae ; and Lyell has also adopted the ice-theory. 
Surely the men who thus differ in the interpretations of 
science should be the last to demand uniformity in the 
interpretations of revealed religion, or else reject the 
Bible altogether. Upon the same grounds and with 
greater consistency should not believers in the Bible re- 
ject all science until its professed defenders shall agree 
as to what it is ? Instead of assuming such positions, 
scientists should study the Bible, and interpret it ac- 
cording to its own rules, without regard to the opinions 
of those who profess to believe it, requiring only that its 
author shall make himself understood. The same course 
should be pursued by religionists in investigating the 
phenomena of nature : dismissing all mere authoritative 
opinions, and with perfect independence search for facts 
in order to discover truth. To pursue any other course 
is certain to result in the unnatural disintegration of the 
grand circle of truth. We venture the opinion that 
when (if ever) both the written and phenomenal revela- 
tion of the world come to be understood, all will be 
found to be in the most beautiful harmony. 

So far as man's eternal future is concerned the Bible 
makes it depend upon a resurrection from the dead, who 



62 COSMOGONY. 

are by that act endowed by their Maker with a perfect 
physical and an immortal nature, therefore one no 
more susceptible of death, consequently having " eternal 
life." This re-creation involves no greater knowledge or 
power than that necessitated in his original creation. 
Nt)r can such men as Lyell and Darwin with consistency 
object to this view of man's reproduction when they 
suppose that the human species has been exterminated 
and reproduced a number of times, and may be again, 
or give credit to the heathen philosophy to this effect. 
Now, if inanimate nature is able to accomplish such a 
work, cannot the great God re-create a man once, and so 
perfect that he will be exempt from the liability of 
death ? 

Scientists must not Ignore^ but Prove the Bible False, 

It is not enough that these scientists should ignore the 
Bible : they must demonstrate its teachings to be false 
by showing its statements touching nature to be abso- 
lutely contradictory to it, or, what is the same thing, 
that the text has been so corrupted by successive trans- 
lations that it cannot be depended upon as the original 
revelation. Such a task, however, imposes not only the 
obligation to submit it to an impartial and thorough in- 
vestigation, but to produce the original copies and manu- 
scripts which have been thus corrupted, and even then 
these would be the true. The manner usually adopted 
by these scientists is that of piling up inference upon in- 
ference, conjecture upon conjecture, without the presen- 
tation of a principle by which their correctness may be 
tested. As an inducement to search the Scriptures we 
suggest that to their astonishment they will find, clearly 
recorded therein, the prominent events developed by the 
march of empire from tha earliest times of authentic 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 6$ 

history even down to our own day, demonstrating these 
Scriptures to have emanated from a mind seeing the end 
from the beginning. Here, men of science, is indicated 
a standard of knowledge for your attainment, reaching 
which, you will be able to speak with authority, and un- 
derstanding both sides of the questions involved in the 
discussion, earn for yourselves the distinguished title. 
Men of Science ; but until this is accomplished should 
you not be a little more modest in so unceremoniously 
setting the Bible aside and of excluding God from his 
universe ? You may also be assured that the day for the 
success of your speculation, falsely called science, is at an 
end, and that there are students who have a knowledge 
both of the Bible and nature, and are thus qualified to 
strip the sophistry from the teaching of your so-called 
facts, and to expose the collusion with which many more 
of them are connected. For those which remain — the 
facts of real science and philosophy — we have no fears 
that they will be found discordant with the truths of the 
Scripture. 

If an infinitely wise Being inspired men to write the 
future history and destiny of the world, this certainly im- 
plies his ability to preserve the original manuscripts, by 
which the correctness of the translations which have been 
made may always be tested ; at least those translations 
which, according to the history of making them, seem to 
be the furthest removed from the possibility of ignorant 
or designed corruption. If the author of the Scriptures 
has permitted the infusion of men's ideas with his own 
in this book, so as fatally to corrupt every copy, while 
the eternal destiny of man depends upon the correctness 
of the instruction therein contained, how can he avoid 
the severest reflections both upon his goodness and wis- 
dom ? if such a supposition cannot be entertained, and 



64 COSMOGONY. 

this record contains the reasons why it is that the world 
is deranged, and why its maker thus cursed it, and nar- 
rates the circumstances how it was done, and this ex- 
actly corresponds with such manifestations as are appar- 
ent in nature, then is it not clear that ignorance of this 
design and the history of its execution might lead to the 
erroneous supposition that it was always as physically 
deranged, including man, as now, and that as derange- 
ment at all is inconsistent with the wisdom displayed in 
its making, that it is improving and will become per- 
fect ? Hence the baseless theory of evolution. We are 
free to admit that if there can be produced a single fact 
in nature or philosophy in palpable contradiction to any 
statement or theory of this written revelation when ex- 
pounded by itself, then such statement cannot be true, 
and the claim for its inspiration must be abandoned. 

Radical Changes of Modem Science. 

In order to show the radical changes through which 
the science of geology has passed, and the arrogant posi- 
tion assumed by Sir Charles Lyell in condemning the 
opinions of the earlier geologists for appealing to the 
Mosaic record of creation and the deluge in confirma- 
^tion of their conclusions, we introduce the following 
from " Principles of Geology," p. 233 : 

"The earlier speculators in geology availed themselves 
of this as of every obscure period when the planet was 
in a nascent or half-formed state, or when the laws of 
the animate and inanimate world differed essentially 
from those now established ; and in this, as in many 
other cases, they succeeded to no small extent in divert- 
ing attention from the class of facts which, if fully under- 
stood, might have led the. way to an examination of the 
phenomena. At first it was imagined that the earth's 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 65 

axes had been for ages perpendicular to the plane of the 
ecliptic, so that there was a perpetual equinox and uni- 
formity of seasons throughout the year ; that the planet 
enjoyed this ' paradisical ' state until the era of the flood ; 
but in this catastrophe, whether by the shock of a comet 
or some other convulsion, it lost its equipoise, and hence 
the obliquity of its axes, and with that the varied sea- 
sons of the temperate zone and the long nights and days 
of the polar circle." 

With reference to this opinion, we say, there is not 
the remotest ground for it in the Bible ; and the con- 
trary is clearly implied. It is written (Gen. i : 14) : 
*' And God said. Let there be lights in the firmament of 
the hea^ven to divide the day from the night ; and let 
them be for signs and ior seaso/is, send for days and years." 
Hence the days, seasons and years were the effect of 
the relative motions and positions of the sun and the 
earth ; the very fact of seasons presupposes a change of 
temperature, and as this change results from the increas- 
ing and decreasing obliquity of the earth to the sun, it 
must have occurred in the Eden world. It might have 
been increased at the flood, giving the polar circle its ex- 
treme long nights and low temperature, and we think it 
was ; not, however, by the shock of a comet or any other 
mysterious natural cause, but that the Being who made 
it thus cursed or deranged it for a purpose, which pur- 
pose is elsewhere revealed. The scientist, therefore, who 
held to the perfect equinox theory, did not understand 
the astronomical fact and philosophy here stated. 

Lyell continues : " When the progress of astronomical 
science had exploded this theory, it was assumed that 
the earth at its creation was in a state of igneous fluidity, 
and that ever since that era it has been cooling down, 
contracting its dimensions and acquiring a solid crust,'* 
3 



66 COSMOGONY. 

We may also remark, in regard to this supposition, that 
there is not in the Bible the least allusion to the world's 
ever having been in this state of liquid fire, which, if it 
existed, would have illuminated the surface of the earth 
more than a dozen suns. 

Instead of this, it is stated that the first thing God 
created was light, which implies that all was dark before ; 
and the normal temperature of dark miatter is cold. Had 
the earth been a sphere of liquid fire, wath its accom- 
panying light, the first act of the Creator would have 
been to put out the light by quenching the fire, as he 
could not have created the world out of fire. If, there- 
fore, those scientists who conceived and defended the 
gaseous, fiery geological theory, had consulted and fol- 
lowed the Bible account, they would have been saved 
from the blunder of adopting it. 

One of these rash scientists was Lyell himself. He 
continues : " But the progress of geological investiga- 
tion has generally dissipated this idea, at first so univer- 
sally established. [It should be remarked, that what 
Lyell means by " established^'' \'=> believed yN\\hovX evidence 
and afterward abandoned.] Should doubts and absur- 
dities still remain, they should be ascribed to our limited 
acquaintance with the laws of nature, not to revolutions 
in her economy. [And his present idea of the laws of 
nature is that they existed before organized bodies and 
produced them, while the fact is, they grow out of the 
organizations themselves, whether of animate or inani- 
mate nature, and the organizations were the work of the 
Creator, as we have shown elsewhere.] They should 
stimulate to further research, not tem.pt us to indulge our 
fancies in speculating about imaginary changes of inter- 
nal temperature, or the unsettled state of the surface of 
the planet before it was prepared for the habitation of 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 67 

living beings." If Lyell and his school are thus un- 
acquainted with the laws of inanimate nature, how much 
more must they be with those of living organic beings ? 

Again he says : "To return to the general argument 
pursued in this chapter, it is assumed, for the reasons 
above explained, that a slow change of species is in 
simultaneous operation everywhere throughout the sur- 
face of the habitable globe, of both sea and land. I 
shall now conclude the discussion of a question with 
which we have been occupied since the beginning of the 
first chapter — namely, whether there has been any inter- 
ruption from the remotest periods of one uniform and 
continuous system of change in the animate and inani- 
mate world. For this reason all theories are rejected 
which involve the sudden and violent catastrophes and 
revolutions of the whole earth and its inhabitants." 
Here we have the distinct and broad avowal that the 
geologists of the present day have rejected three of their 
own previously established theories of the genesis of the 
earth, and now reject all theories involving sudden and 
universal changes, and any others except those operating 
at the present day, of course carrying with it the Bible 
doctrine of the creation and flood ; and it is these same 
slow changes, taking place every day around us, which 
brought the world into existence, as from remotest time 
there have been no other, or there never have been 
other changes than those now operating in nature. As, 
therefore, God is not now creating men, he never did 
i^reate any ; hence man owes him no worship, and is 
under no responsibility to him. Even if there is a God, 
he never had anything to do with the world. 

The present position of science, being thus defined by 
its most advanced advocate, relieves us of all danger of 
misunderstanding its sentiments. This theory of slow 



68 COSMOGONY. 

■uniformity which Lyell aims to estabUsh from the begin- 
ning to the end of his book shows that the sole animat- 
ing principle of what is now called the science of geology 
is that the world was never created, but evolved, with 
all its inhabitants, by just such movements as are now 
taking place everywhere on the globe. He appears also 
to be animated by the mere love of speculation, which, 
even if true, would be utterly incapable of conferring the 
least possible benefit upon mankind. On the other hand, 
by one fell swoop it destroys the only trustworthy record 
of historic man, relieving him from responsibility to any 
supposed proprietor of his being, and at death blots him 
out of existence. Hence geology does the same work as 
atheism to every man who adopts its conclusions. Such 
sentiments necessitate a defense of the Bible which shall 
render escape from the opposite conclusions impossible. 
To ignore the controversy is to yield the whole ground. 
How strange that such acknowledged blunders should 
be made the occasion of this arrogant onslaught ! It 
however renders the task easier, turning, by the potent 
weapons of the revelations of nature and the Bible, its 
other speculations against the inventors. 

In the work above referred to Lyell occupies a num- 
ber of pages with extracts from ancient and modern au- 
thors whose opinions he places side by side with the 
records of Moses, attributing to him equally the author- 
ship of what is there recorded, though Moses claims 
they were either written by the finger of God or spoken 
by his mouth. Lyell attempts to belittle the Noachian 
flood by giving accounts from heathen tradition of other 
floods, leaving us to infer that they are entitled to equal 
if not greater credit. If the dates fixed for the occur- 
rence of these other floods and creations are subsequent 
to that given in Genesis for the deluge, then they are 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 69 

mere variatiens of its account ; and every one of them is 
of later date ! It must be remembered that the Hebrews 
alone of all nations had the Scriptures prior to the 
Christian era, except the Septuagint version from He- 
brew into Greek, made at Alexandria 277 b. c. by order 
of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt. Hence what- 
ever discrepancies there may be between the heathen ac- 
counts of floods and that of Genesis, the latter should 
be taken as correct. The deluge occurred in the year 
1556 of the world, and we propose to show that these 
scientists have overlooked, designedly or otherwise, the 
principal fact stated in this record, and which will be 
seen to account adequately for all the discoveries of 
geology. This fact is stated thus : " And the fountains 
of the great deep were broken up " (Gen. 7 : 11). 

In order to form a proper idea of the magnitude of the 
effects produced on the globe by the deluge, it must be 
taken in connection with the work of the third day of 
creation, recorded thus : " And God said. Let the waters 
under the heaven be gathered together into one place, 
and let dry land appear ; and it was so. And the dry 
land he called earth, and the gathering together of the 
waters he called seas." We understand this collection 
of the waters to have been in the heart of the earth. It 
is also referred to in the book of Proverbs (8 : 29) thus : 
" When he gave to the sea his decree that the waters 
should not pass his commandment : when he appointed 
the foundations of the earth." It is also made the bur- 
den of inspired song (Ps. 24 : i, 2) : " The earth is the 
Lord's, and the fullness thereof ; the world, and tljey that 
dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, 
and established it upon the floods." If the Bible con- 
templated the world to be flat, these expressions might 
also conceive the water lying below and the earth above,. 



70 COSMOGONY. 

but when, as we have seen, it recognizes the earth as be- 
ing a sphere, then the under or within signifies its heart. 
Around this great fountain of seas or floods God laid 
the strata composing the crust of the earth, equally on 
•every side, beginning with that the most firmly com- 
pressed, as the foundation next to the waters. At the 
creation everything was made in the most beautiful pro- 
portion. Every tree was rounded, with all its grains, or 
strata if you please, laid to correspond with its form ; 
and as the world is round, it is reasonable to suppose 
all its grains, layers, or strata were laid to conform to its 
shape, that of the greatest specific gravity occupying the 
lowest position ; and so in regular order each stratum 
of a lighter texture would superimpose, and so on until 
the soil was reached, as the lightest under the atmos- 
phere. This order would also be followed in grading 
the density of the air, regularly diminishing in ascension, 
until the highest ether was reached. 

Sc7Hpture Account of Creation going back of Genesis. 

This structure of the new-made world most beauti- 
fully corresponds with its primitive record as given by 
its author. It may not be generally understood, but 
there is an inspired account of creation contained in the 
8th chapter of Proverbs, going still further back than 
that of Genesis, relating, however, exclusively to the in- 
animate earth, and particularly to its stratification and 
the collection of the matter from space, as the great 
chaotic deep out of which all things were afterward 
formed. This account forcibly sets forth the prior exist- 
ence of God thus : " I was set up from everlasting, from 
the beginning, or ever the earth was." Genesis begins 
by admitting its existence, though devoid of any of the 
forms it was made to assume during the six days' work : 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 7 1 

"When there were no depths." Genesis also admits 
their existence, thus : "And darkness was upon the face 
of the great deep'' " When there were no fountains 
abounding with water." Genesis finds these also : "And 
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."* 
" Before the hills or mountains were settled." To form 
these the Creator endowed every atom of the world with 
the two principles of gravity, or density, and chemical 
affinity. According to the first they sank to the greatest 
depth, and according to the second they adhered to each 
other, forming strata of varied texture. The account 
goes on : "While as yet he had not made the earth [this 
was the third day's work of Genesis], nor the open 
places, nor the highest parts of the dust of the world 
[the most ethereal gases]. When he prepared the heav- 
ens [composed the atmosphere]. When he set a compass 
upon the face of the depth [striking out the globular 
form of the world], When he established the clouds 
above [made the air to evaporate and hold water]. When 
he strengthened the fountains of the great deep; when 
he gave to the sea his command that the waters should 
not pass ; when he appointed the foundations of the 
earth." Here were the great fountains or seas confined 
within the foundations of the earth, and of course within 
its center, which foundations, forming the crust of the 
earth, were violently broken up at the flood by another 
command of the same being, letting the seas from the 
great fountain rush out to drown the world. 

It will be seen that this account begins the order of 
the formation of the world with the substance called 
" the highest part of the dust of the world." These, be- 
ing the gases, would be the first formation after electri- 
city, which is a creation, because manifesting design and 
adaptation, as we have shown elsewhere by its being a 



72 COSMOGONY.. 

universal agent. The gases must have been the first 
formation, as all things else are formed of them ; and 
the gases were formed from electricity. The next for- 
mation of a more dense character is here called the 
" heavens ; " or in Genesis, the " firmament," in which 
the birds flew, and which is the atmosphere ; and as this 
is a combination of gases, it would be the next forma- 
tion. ^Vhen he strengthened the fountains of the deep, 
or condensed the waters, he formed them of the gases, and 
which would follow in the scale of specific gravity. The 
last formation mentioned in this wonderfully scientific 
account is, " the foundation of the earth." This was 
the granite, the hardest and heaviest stratum, incasing 
the waters equally on every side, and upon which every 
other stratum in the ascending scale was laid. Now 
as the lowest stratum was formed from the next im- 
mediately above, and so of each of the others, it must 
have contained all the chemical properties of that stratum,, 
and so of each higher stratum, until electricity is reached,, 
which we have shown contains all the chemical proper- 
ties of all the other forms of matter in the universe, of 
course in their most sublimated state. 

Manner of Creation — Chemical Endowment of Ato?ns by 
Mind. 

We speak of these formations succeeding each other^ 
but it is not necessary that the movement should have 
consumed successive periods, either longer or shorter. 
God issued his command to the great deep of chaotic 
fluid, and willed that certain work should be done, com- 
prehended in the expression, for example, " Let dry land 
appear." Now by his own spirit-energy and according 
to his knowledge, he endowed every atom of this matter 
with peculiar chemical and electrical attractions and re- 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 73 

sistances, and in degrees of more or less strength of 
affinity for each other, compelling those having the 
greatest amount of adhesive force to combine, thus form- 
ing strata of the greatest specific gravity, while those 
having less of this force would form those of less firm- 
ness, etc. In this endowment there was another, pro- 
viding for necessary classification. As the various com- 
binations are composed of different proportions of the 
gases and electricity, their atoms must have been en- 
dowed by mental energy with these proportionate quali- 
ties, forcing them to seek their affinities, and thus, com- 
bining,' formed all the compound substances of the world. 
It will be seen that every atom thus endowed would 
commence its motion at the same instant, thereby form- 
ing every stratum from the foundation rock to the sur- 
face soil simultaneously. Those particles endowed the 
most powerfully with chemical and electrical force would 
speed their way with the greatest rapidity to reach their 
equilibrium or center of gravity, and there, combining, be 
at rest. This endowment was the work of mind, giving 
rise to the motion of matter, while the motion was the 
birth of the laws of nature ; but creation was first, and 
nature or the phenomena of matter followed, working 
out this inherent endowment. Here we are furnished 
with a historic genesis worthy of science, worthy of phi- 
losophy, and worthy the name and ability of its great 
Author. 

The Eden World Destroyed by the Deluge. 

From the creation up to the deluge the world was so 
beautiful in comparison with that which has survived 
that we are able to form but an imperfect view of it from 
its present appearance. That world was free from 
those derangements manifested in pestilential vapors, 



74 COSMOGONY. 

Storms, hurricanes, lightnings, thunders, earthquakes, 
and meteoric disorder of every description. The equal 
distribution of land over the earth's surface prevented 
those extreme and sudden changes of temperature of 
which it is now susceptible. So luxuriant was the soil 
that it brought forth spontaneously whatever its inhab- 
itants needed, or with just labor enough to give men 
healthy exercise. In a word, it was still the Eden-world 
— the blooming Paradise, in the eastern part of which 
was situated the Garden of Eden, the cradle of human 
kind. It is not wonderful that in such a world men 
should have attained a longevity ranging from five hun- 
dred to nine hundred years. 

If we take thirty years, the length of a generation 
at the present day, and five hundred as the length of 
generations up to the flood, as the data of calculation, 
there would have come into existence seventeen genera- 
tions of post-diluvians to one of ante-diluvians ; and 
supposing all to have been equally prolific, the popula- 
tion would increase seventeen fold faster before than 
after the flood ; and the age of the world before the 
flood, being about one-fourth of what it is now, would 
give about three times as many people living at the time 
of the flood as there are at present inhabiting the globe. 
Such also must have been the ratio of increase of all 
other animals as well as of vegetables. 

In the destruction of the old world by the flood, all 
that was necessary was simply that the Being who made 
the " fountain of the great deep " should increase the 
temperature of the pent-up waters ten degrees, or less, 
and the entire crust of the globe would explode, whether 
it was one mile or one thousand miles in rocky thick- 
ness : indeed, nothing could withstand such a hydro- 
static force. If it is desired to see what would be the 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 75 

appearance of the earth thus broken up, drill a hole in a 
round stone, fill it with water and plug the hole, then in- 
crease the temperature of the water by heating the stone, 
and the exploded fragments will give the result. If the 
pressure was equal on every side, the explosion would be 
universal and violent in proportion to the degree of the 
resistance. 

The Geological Appearance Proves the Flood. 

So, if the crust of the earth was thus broken up, no 
matter by what scientific cause, the land would as* gen- 
erally disappear by its submergence as the bulk of water 
in the globe was greater in proportion than the land ; 
all being, hurled promiscuously together, the water, being 
of less specific gravity than many of the earthly strata, 
would prevail in greater excess upon the surface of 
the subsequent earth, the land sinking in whatever 
chasm opened for its reception. The locality and atti- 
tude of the rocks which had formed the beds of the 
rivers, lakes, and oceans would be changed, being found 
not only on the surface at the level of the sea, but forced 
up mountainously high, of course carrying with them the 
shells and fossils which had accumulated from the be- 
ginning of creation. These beds of shells might be 
found deposited in seams of any kind of rocky strata or 
mixed with other earths, as well as dividing different 
strata, one mass of displaced rock having been thrown 
upon another or turned upside down, the soil lying be- 
low and granite above. In these upheavals, correspond- 
ing to the depressions, sand-hills and other drift matter 
would be found upon the earth's surface at any altitude, 
cast up from water-bottoms. Hills of gravel would ap- 
pear containing large boulders rounded by the violent 
commotion and rush of the waters during the one hun- 



76 COSMOGONY. 

dred and fifty days of the world-wide and world-deep 
deluge. There would also be found strata containing 
fossils adhering to and imbedded in them ; for there 
must have been, then as now, rocky formations so soft 
that shells could imbed themselves in them while down 
deep in the earth, but which would almost immediately 
harden on being brought to the surface and in contact 
with the atmosphere. Rocks are now dug from quarries 
and used as building stone which, when first taken out, 
are so soft that they- are sawed into squares almost as 
easily as clay, but by a few weeks' exposure to the air 
become as hard as limestone or granite. A house of 
worship in Ilion, New York, is built of such stone. 

From such a breaking up of the crust of the. earth it 
would also result that there would be subterranean 
streams, even rivers, running irregularly and promis- 
cuously, and forming lakes, into whose basins would be 
carried and deposited drift of every description within 
their reach, which, opening into seas, would carry thence 
shells and fish and various other inhabitants and de- 
posits of the waters. 

Volcanoes and Earthquakes accounted for. 

It is also evident that in volcanic localities sea and 
lake bottoms with their fossil accumulations might be 
thrown to the surface by volcanic action, the continuous 
commotion and friction of these vegetable and mineral 
substances setting free large quantities of gas, which 
would gather force until an earthquake and volcanic 
eruption would result, building up a mountain of lava. 

From the subsidence of the deluge there would be 
produced great openings between hills and mountains, 
excavated by the dashing down from above the world of 
waters which by the fiat of God had belched forth from 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 77 

the " fountain of the great deep," an3 had deluged the 
world, covering its highest mountains. The surface rock 
thus cut might have been of the soft texture to which we 
have alluded, so that by these mighty torrents the 
deepest chasms on the surface of the earth might have 
been cut in a few days, before they had time to harden 
by atmospheric influence. This fact would always baffle 
the skill of man to estimate the time required to wear the 
chasm or the rocks, or to enable him to draw even an 
approximate inference founded upon any known phenom- 
ena of the ordinary movements of nature. Instead of be- 
ing merely possible — this violent breaking up of the crust 
of the earth — every thing or appearance of nature goes 
to confirm it as a fact. One of the most prominent of 
these evidences is the attitude of the rocky strata of the 
earth. How seldom are any of these found lying upon 
a level with the plane of the earth's surface, which, no 
matter how or by what agency they were formed, would 
be their natural position. Instead of this they are found 
lying at every angle, and even standing perpendicular, as 
the Palisades on the Hudson River, which, however, is 
exactly what would have been the case if the strata had 
once laid on a level with the circle of the earth, and by 
some catastrophe involving a power equal to the effect 
had been broken up to give the waters within a free pas- 
sage to the surface. 

So great and universal was this catastrophe, deranging 
the whole geological structure of the globe, that we can 
by its present appearance form but an imperfect concep- 
tion of its pristine regularity, symmetrical proportions, 
and finished workmanship. That such was the extent 
of its derangement by the deluge is confirmed by an in- 
spired apostle, thus : " For this they willingly are igno- 
rant of [including the geologists], that by the word of God, 



78 COSMOGONY. 

the heavens were of old and the earth standing in the 
water and out of the water [this comprehend.s the whole 
world] ; whereby the world that then was, being over- 
flowed with water, perished." (2 Peter 3 : 5, 6.) The 
supposition that the world only underwent a slight change 
by the deluge, or such as would follow a rain storm ex- 
tensive enough to cover it with water, and then gradually 
subsided, there is no consistency or even truth in such 
a declaration. " The world that then was perished^ 
Previous to the flood there were brooks, rivers, and 
large lakes called seas upon the surface of the earth ; 
but from the brief history of the Eden-world with which 
we have been furnished it is fair to presume there was as 
much more land upon the surface in comparison with 
the water as there is now more water than land. In re- 
lation to this question we read : " And God said, Let 
the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures 
that hath life. And God created great whales and every 
living creature that moveth, which the waters brought 
forth abundantly after their kind, and fill the waters in 
the seas." (Gen. i : 21, 22). 

Such was the condition of the world for the first 1,556 
years of its existence. There had probably never been 
any rain during that period, which we infer from the fol- 
lowing language : '' And the Lord God created every 
plant of the field and every herb before it grew : for the 
Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, but 
there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the 
whole face of the grou7id'' (Gen. 2 : 5, 6). The evapo- 
rating and condensing atmosphere was so perfect that 
the nightly mists and dewfall (and it was all over the 
earth the same, watering the whole ground^ rendered 
rain for fructifying purposes unnecessary, this condition 
for vegetable growth being most favorable. 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 79 

Fossil and Shell Argument Confirms the Deluge, 

In these waters during this period were deposited the 
vast quantity of shells, whose fossil remains present one 
of the most important evidences of the extreme age of 
the world, in geological calculation. Shells buried deep 
in water are protected from the decomposing atmos- 
pheric agencies, and therefore will prodigiously accumu- 
late. In making a proper estimate of these enormous 
deposits it should be borne in mind that shell-fish are 
very prolific, come quickly to maturity, and are of short 
life. The few years required to produce large beds of 
oysters illustrate this fact. 

So mightily was the earth rent asunder by the watery 
convulsion that it is not strange to find portions of its 
crust withi^L the polar circle which once belonged to the 
equatorial region, the deep-laid granite blocks piled 
mountainously high : for the distance from the equator 
to the poles is no greater than from the center of the 
earth to its surface. The Bible accounts of the creation 
and flood and of the effects produced by the latter not 
only establish their truth, but present the only adequate 
cause to account for the facts, and show it to have been 
both philosophical and scientific. Having rejected this 
record, the geologists have ransacked all nature in search 
of possibilities — of igneous, aqueous and glacial agen- 
cies — of internal and external temperatures, all the way 
from a world of liquid fire to a world covered with ice. 

The " Glacial Period " Never Existed. 

That our readers may have a proper idea of this last, 
called the great glacial period, amounting to almost a 
universal deluge of ice, we quote in the first place from 
a chart entitled, '"The Ages of Nature, Geology, and 



8o COSMOGONY. 

Paleontology," compiled by Deacon Dye, and published 
in 1874. Says the chart: "The post-tertiary, glacier, 
or northern drift period, brings us to one of those back- 
ward-looking times when man, if he was on earth, might 
have well and justly despaired of its future. Following 
the wonderful upheaveals and gigantic developments of 
mammalian life, a cold glacial or barren period ensued, 
and under its vigorous climate life in the Northern 
Hemisphere succumbed. There is good reason for be- 
lieving that North America during the drift period was 
covered with immense sheets of ice, in places thousands 
of feet in thickness. All Canada, the British provinces, 
nearly all New England, and a large part of the United 
States directly west were so covered, the glaciers mov- 
ing toward the ocean in the most direct line, their gen- 
eral direction being toward the south. [This implies 
there was a depth of water sufficient to float them, even 
across the highest lands, to the Pacific, and therefore 
over the Rocky Mountains ; and this would make a del- 
uge over all the earth.] Large quantities of granite and 
boulders have been carried from Canada and Lake Su- 
perior hundreds of miles distant into central Ohio and 
Indiana. The northern shores of Long Island are 
strewn with boulders, red sandstone, and granite from 
Connecticut. In Europe a similar condition of things 
existed, over all Switzerland and a considerable portion 
of Spain and Italy. From Norway to Great Britain an 
immense glacier extended, by which large boulders were 
transported across the German Ocean. Traces of an- 
cient glaciers are found in Russia, Prussia, and in the 
Carpathian and Caucasus Mountains ; in Scotland and 
Wales ; in America, Europe, and Asia down to the 44th 
and 42d parallels of latitude, and up to the altitude of 
5,000 feet. Immense blocks are at Bradford, Massachu- 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 8l 

setts. One is 30 feet each way, and its weight is esti- 
mated at 4,500,000 pounds." 

Upon this subject Lyell says : " Some ice islands have 
been known to drift from Baffin's Bay to the latitude of 
the Azores, and from the South Platte to the immediate 
neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope ; so that the 
area over which the effects of moving ice may be exper- 
ienced [A pretty strong term, Sir Charles ; why did you 
not say seen ? Was it because you wanted to settle this 
speculation as a geological fact, about which no further 
questions should be asked ?] comprehends a large por- 
tion of the globe." 

Frof. Agassiz's Cause Unscientific. 

In his report of the Hassler expedition, dated June i, 
1872, at Conception Bay, Professor Agassiz says : " The 
southern portion of the South American continent and 
the islands adjacent are profusely strewn with erratic 
boulders, and mountains up to a certain height are worn 
by contact with glacier action, and rocks bearing marks 
of the grinding movement of the ice of the great gla- 
cier period are continually met with, all going to show 
that the movement was from a south-northerly direction: 
or, in other words, from the equator. [The bursting of 
the earth at the flood which threw these boulders in every 
direction was from the center or the equator.] After 
having traced what seems to me palpable evidence of an 
ice mantle once spreading over the south part of this 
continent, the effect of which I have seen from Monte- 
video on the Atlantic to Telcohuana on the Pacific coast, 
the question naturally arises. How far the southern ex- 
tremity of Africa, as well as New Zealand and Australia, 
were involved in the extension ? and what produced the 
great glacier period ? which up to this time remains un- 



82 COSMOGONY. 

explained ; but if the European continent should be 
suddenly elevated 3,000 feet, most of its surface would 
be covered by perpetual snow. The same would result 
to the North American continent if it was lifted 8,000 
feet above its present level." 

The Professor might also have added : A correspond- 
ing elevation of every continent or island would produce 
the same effect — that is, all would be covered with per- 
petual snow and ice. Another thing said to be a fact 
by these ice theorists is that all the continents were 
mantled by ice in some places thousands of feet thick. 
Now Agassiz has touched the only principle by which 
the ice could have been produced, that of the elevation 
of all the earth from three to eight thousand feet, thus 
bringing the level of the earth to that of those mountains 
which are covered with perpetual ice and snow. 

At the time of the agitation of the slavery question in 
Congress, when members used to make what were called 
spread-eagle speeches, it was said that a certain orator 
got the eagle up so high that he couldn't get him down. 
The Professor has settled the question as to what pro- 
duced the great glacier period, and has elevated the con- 
tinents into the region of perpetual snow and ice, and 
there he leaves them ; but the perpetual ice does not 
now exist to a continental extent, therefore it was not 
perpetual. This elevation to 8,000 feet of the conti- 
nents would give the earth 16,000 feet greater diameter ; 
and the waters of the seas were above this, for they 
floated the ice that ground streaks in the rocks as high 
as 5,000 feet ; and to carry islands of ice over the Cape 
of Good Hope the water must have been at least three 
thousand feet higher than the cape. The great glacier 
period, with its ice-boats for erratic transportation, has 
been invented in order to account for the fact that 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 83 

boulders are found in one place which belong to another. 
Having denied the existence of the flood, which scattered 
these in every direction, this is their only alternative : 
that the whole earth had swelled up, oceans and all, 
about 8,000 feet on every side, making the world 16,000 
feet greater in diameter. To produce such an effect, 
one of two things was necessary : first, that the eleva- 
tion of the surface thus must have left a corresponding 
vacuum in the center of the gjobe ; but this being con- 
trary to the universal law of gravity, which presses every 
particle of matter toward this center, science declares 
such a cause did not produce the elevation. The only 
other possible cause known to nature is the expansion 
of every element, compound or simple, of which the 
earth is composed, and this implies the expansion of 
every atom of which these elements are formed. But 
heat expands and cold contracts all matter ; and as dur- 
ing the great glacier period the surface of the earth was 
intensely cold, so cold indeed that it was mantled with 
ice thousands of feet in thickness, we say the result 
would have been to shrink or contract the whole land 
and water to its smallest possible dimensions. 

Hence Agassiz's theory of the cause of the glacier 
period is impossible, and therefore it never existed ; and 
we see that its occurrence is forbidden by two of the best 
known laws of science — namely, gravity and temperature. 

Ly ell's Attempt Inadequate. 

In " Principles of Geology " vol. i., p. 235, Sir Charles 
Lyell gives the following results of a labored investiga- 
tioii of the cause of the diffusion of heat over the globe, 
in order to account for a temperature low enough to 
have produced the great glacier period. He says : 

" We may warn the geologists to be on their guard, 



84 COSMOGONY. 

and not hastily to assume that the temperature of the 
earth in the present era is a type of that which most 
usually obtains, since it contemplates far mightier altera- 
tions in the position of land and sea, at different epochs, 
than those which now cause the climate of Europe to 
differ from that of other continents in the same latitudes. 
It is now well ascertained that zones of equal warmth 
both in the atmosphere and in the waters of the oceans 
are neither parallel to the equator nor to each other. It 
is also well known that the 77iean annual temperature 
may be the same in two places which enjoy very differ- 
ent climates, though the seasons may be nearly uniform 
or violently contrasted, so that the lines of equal tem- 
perature do not coincide with those of equal annual heat 
or isothermal lines. The deviations of all these lines 
from the same parallel of latitude are determined by a 
multitude of circumstances, among the principal of which 
are the position, direction, and elevation of the conti- 
nents and islands, the position and depth of the sea, and 
the direction of winds and currents." 

To illustrate these differences he gives us what may 
be regarded as a striking case, thus : " On cornparing the 
two continents of Europe and America, it is found that 
places in the same latitude have sometimes a mean dif- 
ference of temperature amounting to ii°, or even in a 
few cases to 17° Fahr. ; and some places on the same 
continents, which have the same mean temperature, dif- 
fer from 7° to 17° in latitude." 

Since the establishment by our Government of tele- 
graphic stations for the purpose of making simultaneous 
weather reports, it has been ascertained that there is but 
a very slight variation of annual heat and cold at any one 
place. It is also well known that the length of seasons 
for raising crops in any latitude does not depend upon 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 85 

mean temperature. Now, what relation is there between 
these slight variations of temperature, even of 17°, as the 
result of more land than water, and that required to 
produce the extreme cold of the great glacier period ? 

Suppose the whole earth was covered with water, 
would that lower the temperature to a degree that would 
mantle it with ice ? Every one knows that upon the 
deck of a vessel in mid-ocean there is about the same 
temperature as in the same latitude upon land, taking 
the motion and direction of the wind into the account. 
No, such a theory is utterly inadequate to account for the 
results, and it is put forward only as a shift, to account 
for the fancied ice-carrying speculation which never oc- 
curred, Lyell introduces it because it is a slow, 
ordinary movement of nature, begging his geological 
brethren to believe it might have been colder once be- 
cause there was less land than sea ! 

Agassiz knows of no other cause to have produced the 
great covering of the world with ice than its sudden up- 
heaval, and therefore a catastrophe — a sudden and entire 
enlargement of the earth — and that, too, by cold, which 
contracts all bodies. 

According to Mr. Darwin's theory, these animal sci- 
entists have reached the hard necessity of devouring 
each other, and the only question is, which is the fittest 
to survive ? Behold the geological hydra, ever ready to 
swallow its own heads ! It is certain that if this great 
glacier period ever existed the sun was the only means 
of thawing it ; but this was impossible, since the sun 
had not sufficient heating power to prevent its freez- 
ing. As long as the land and water, covered with ice 
thousands of feet thick, remained at this elevation, the 
globe would remain thus expanded, and the power of the 
sun, instead of contracting, which was necessary to make 



86 COSMOGONY. 

it warmer, would expand it still more, and therefore the 
great Glacier Period, if it ever existed, never could have 
ceased to exist ; and as it does not now exist, it follows 
that it never did exist. 

The law of equilibrium, governing all the forces and 
movements of nature, forbids the existence of this 
aqueous period. According to this, rains, streams, and 
rivers gradually change the configuration of every con- 
tinent, forming hills from mountains and smaller ones 
from larger, thus filling up the surrounding depressions. 
These are continually wearing away by aqueous forces 
in all its forms of water, ice, and snow. The surface 
rock is split into fragments by the expansive power of 
frost, and ground into atoms. Rains and running cur- 
rents pulverize these stones into fine dust and finally 
Avash it into the oceans, thus leveling the heights of the 
land above the seas as well as grinding the shores under 
the water as far down as there is motion to the water. 
From this operation of nature two consequences must 
follow if no catastrophes occur. The first is, the depths 
of the oceans will be filled, and secondly, the whole 
earth will be covered with water — even the highest 
mountains. In fact, if, as Lyell expresses it, there has 
been a uniform movement from the remotest time, and 
as there has always been this same aqueous wearing 
away of the land standing out of the water, then there 
was never any dry land, or land above the level of the 
sea ; /or if the seas formed instead of destroying the 
land, still they could not have formed land above their 
own level. But as land does exist above the level of 
the sea, it must therefore always have so existed, or 
from remotest time. With such a period in which to 
operate, had the aqueous and atmospheric forces carried 
but a single atom each year from the land and deposited 



BIBLE STATEMENTS OF CREATION. 87 

it in the ocean bed, every atom would have been sub- 
merged a hundred billions of years ago. You may smile 
at the definite period ; bat it seems a relief to indulge 
occasionally in geological calculation. 

The Argume?it of " Uniformitarianism " Exploded. 

Here then we have the results of the spacious doctrine 
of "Uniformitarianism," for the adoption of which Lyell 
has sacrificed all his volumes of " Catastrophism," for 
the reason, as it seems to us, that he thought he saw the 
evolution of inanimate nature by the slow movements 
of senseless matter, as Darwin thought he saw organic 
nature thus arise. But we have seen that the tendency 
of inanimate nature is toward dissolution and disinte- 
gration instead of formation, while the machinery of 
animal evolution could never have had a start, leaving 
Tyndall fulminating in his backward vision, and mourn- 
fully ejaculating, " Whence came the Primordial form ? " 

O science ! hast thou come to this ? 
Where are thine exalting lessons of yore ? 
Lifting man to things above him, 
Ennobling all with thoughts of highest 
Fame, replete with moral aspirations. 
Man, whence thy godlike reason, 
Measuring up and onward endlessly ? 
Still among the nobler works of nature's 
God, soaring ever and anon — high, 
Deep, wide, making inquest of 
Every chain of thought, whence its 
Spring in nature, or in mind above. 
Whether the causes center in the great 
First, last, mightiest of all, finding 
Nature as a burnished mirror reflect 
The Maker by the world that's made. 
Spangling all heaven in nightly 
Beauty, noiselessly swinging in 



S8 COSMOGONY. J 

i 

Equal balance, hanging yet on naught. i 

Go thou ! begin the noble search for 

Truth, nor think a beast thy brother. i 

'Tis base humility formed in pride — ] 

If thy mind canst take the thought ? 

Science grovels not so low : 'tis its , ■ 

Want. Science true doth but ennoble, -' 

Whether buried in the tiny plant — 

Spectroscopic unit, rolling worlds, or j 

Central systems. Here use thy powers, ( 

Question all that is. List for the response, ; 

And heed the voice of God. ♦ \ 



CHAPTER III. 

REASON, FACTS, SCIENCE, AND SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO 
EVOLUTION. 

Why Error in Science gets the Start of Truth. 

Because of the limitation of human knowledge at- 
tained at any given period, there are facts and phenom- 
ena whose philosophy are unknown ; in consequence of 
which a certain teaching connected with these may be 
used, by the simple honestly and by the intelligent dis- 
honestly, for the purpose of overthrowing well-settled 
convictions upon any subject. This leaves to those 
holding them no alternative other than that of patient 
submission, until opportunity is afforded to subject them 
to a more profound investigation than those have done 
who use them for such purposes. 

One of these heresies of natural science, as we shall 
denominate them, is, that the less produces the greater. 
If this statement be not true, the whole specious theory 
of evolution falls to pieces together. Another of these 
put forth by Professor Tyndall is, that he sees in inor- 
ganic matter the faculty of organizing a thing of life ; 
hence he asks : " Whence came the primordial form of 
all the faculties of plant and animal life, including or- 
ganic man ? " and answers that it came from lifeless 
nebulae. In the discussion of this question all mere 
scientists are agreed that there has not been an eternal 
succession of organic or inorganic things upon earth ; 
there must therefore have been a first. As, however^ 

89 



90 COSMOGONY. 

Hutton, a Scotch geologist, who wrote about a century 
ago, said, " I can see no traces of a beginning and no 
prospect of an end ; " and as atheism adopts this view 
and claims that there has been an endless succession of 
living; things, it is of importance that the supposition be 
shown to be error. The fact of successio?i itself demon- 
strates this, and the conclusion is mathematical, which 
may be stated thus : Mankind, as one of these living 
things, exist ; they succeed each other in coming into 
existence. Any number of things may be counted, either 
from the first to the last or the last to the first : in this 
case, if we begin with the last man born into the world 
and count backward, we must arrive at the first : there- 
fore, there was a first. The force of the argument can- 
not be evaded by the assumption of the evolution soph- 
ism, that man came from a lower animal form and by the 
smallest shades of gradation ; and to give evolutionists 
the fullest advantage of the hypothesis we will admit, 
for the sake of argument, that the first man proper did 
evolve from the monkey as he appears at present, and 
that, too, through all the missing links, no matter how 
numerous they may be. We will go still further, and 
admit that the first monkey evolved from the lowest, 
simplest insect that could move of itself, and that every 
intervening animal only differed in such nice shades that 
no two standing nearest could be distinguished from 
each other. Indeed, we will carry these connecting 
links through every living plant, commencing with those 
which are part animal and part plant, down to the first 
cell of the first vegetable which had the faculty of pro- 
ducing another cell, and which we call growing. Now 
we have arrived at the first vital thing upon our globe ; 
and do we not see, if we begin again with the last 
human being born into the world, and continue the 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. 9I 

count of each unit, that we finally arrive at the first vital 
cell, therefore that there was a first ? We will leave our 
atheistic or evolutionist friends to explain to us the pro- 
cess whereby dead atoms or dead nature began and fin- 
ished this thing of life, or of vitality^ which means, " So 
disposed as to live," or to admit that before this there 
was a living being capable of performing this work. 

So far as the teaching of such facts are concerned, it 
makes no difference whether man is the indirect offshoot 
of something else in animal or plant form, or whether he 
was always a veritable and perfect man ; for if simple 
matter has the faculty of producing the lowest plant 
capable of reproducing itself, which implies life, and life 
implies perfect organization — that is, the existence and 
relative combination and embodiment of every organ 
essential to living, all of which also implies a degree of 
construction so perfect that each will perform its func- 
tional part of the vitality, the result of all being life : — 
then, we repeat, it may have produced man as man, a 
being endowed with the two fundamental principles of 
life and reproduction ; therefore each involves the same 
amount of skill and power in bringing them into existence, 
whether large or small, visible or invisible to the naked 
eye. Indeed it is in the minute animalcule that the most 
exquisite skill is displayed. 

Every Fact has its Science and Philosophy. 

From the analogies of what are known we are led to 
conclude that every fact of nature has a philosophy and 
science peculiar to itself or its class, and to which its 
production and development must be attributed. 

In order to do this, philosophy and science must be 
shown to have been adequate to such results ; and of 
course this can only be done by a student of nature, who 



92 COSMOGONY. 

has a knowledge of all the necessities and provisions de- 
manded. This precludes from the argument the assump- 
tion that because there is a seeming analogy between 
cause and effect, and which might be shown to be the 
real one were it better understood. 

Candor and truth require us in such a case to investi- 
gate every phase of a fact of existence until all the nat- 
ural principles it involves are fully known, before any 
conclusion should be reached or announced, as to the 
manner of such existence. Until this is accomplished, 
it can be considered only in the light of a speculation 
or a hypothesis. 

In the attempt of the geological evolutionists to give a 
chronology of the world, and of man inhabiting it, discrep- 
ancies of thousands of years are common. Indeed it could 
not be otherwise, considering the fact that they have so 
far deviated from the manner of reasoning above stated, 
that conclusions are often drawn from the most superficial 
knowledge of facts, as well as from an assumption that 
they are such, when often they are not facts at all. 

The position seems to us impregnable, that the time 
consumed in the accomplishment of a work so relates to 
the nature of the work, whose facts are its manifestations, 
that the one cannot be correctly interpreted without tak- 
ing the other into the account. It is therefore indis- 
pensable that scientists, whose legitimate business is dem- 
onstration, should go to the very bottom of things, 
not only acquainting themselves with geology, but also 
with cosmogony, metaphysics, and the theology of the 
Bible. These studies, involving a classification of the 
works of nature and its object, are so connected that 
the one department cannot be even well understood with- 
out a knowledge of the others : the one presents the 
phenomena, the others make known the design, the 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. 93 

plan, the origin, and the end to be accomplished. M?n 
may investigate the phenomena, the moving machinery 
of the organic and inorganic world alone, and here, prop- 
erly speaking, is the limit of natural science, without 
taking into the account the end to be accomplished hy 
it ; but they can no more arrive at correct conclusions 
concerning it than they can judge of a house by observ- 
ing the materials being collected for the purpose of 
building one, without taking its erection into the account. 
So with the world, unless the design for which it was 
made is understood — and this knowledge nature does 
not reveal — all is involved in confusion. 

It is a knor/ledge of this grand relationship of facts 
and their science or moving principles, including God, 
man, and the world, which alone reveals the harmony of 
all. If investigation is to be confined strictly within 
the limits of science, then nothing must be taken for 
granted, and nothing assumed or inferred unless sup- 
ported by logical evidence. This renders inadmissible 
any deduction of a skeptical character, as to the manner 
of creation, unless demonstrated in every way to be 
adequate to the production of the fact or its phenome- 
non. Hence the assumption that this or that develop- 
ment consumed this or that length of time, and could be 
demonstrated if we were better acquainted with the phi- 
losophical or scientific principles involved, is a most 
servile begging of the question upon which the whole 
theory is based. The most unequivocal proof is there- 
fore demanded, for the act attempted is reprehensible 
according to the importance of the questions at issue ; 
and as in this case it involves the truth of the Bible, the 
creation of the world, and the existence of its creator, it 
becomes simply atrocious. 



94 COSMOGONY. 

JVas Man Created! 

If I am asked who made me, I answer, God ; by 
which I mean a Being as much my superior in the scale 
of intelligence and power as I am superior to anything 
I myself can make ; and if the thing made is the greatest 
in my power of achievement, it must be the limit of 
my comprehension. If asked again what other reason 
I can assign for entertaining such an idea, I answer, It is 
because I cannot approximate the conception of the or- 
ganic principles of life near enough to enable me to 
make a single inch of the stem of the simplest plant, or 
slip of one that if set in the soil would grow to maturity, 
producing seed which would reproduce successive gen- 
erations. If I might know the precise chemical proper- 
ties the plant contains, yet I could not combine them in 
the exact proportions demanded by the laws of vegeta- 
ble life. The time, too, which nature allots for the 
work, limited as it is to a few hours, renders it impossi- 
ble of performance on my part ; for if it were not fin- 
ished in a brief space of time the decomposing forces of 
the atmosphere would destroy the parts first made. 
Consider the complication of the work this simple, nat- 
ural object involves ! It contains not only the organic 
mechanism of growth common to plants, but has an- 
other department, whose function is to produce seed 
after its kind ; and without which, when it dies by age 
or violence, the existence of the species is ended, and 
successive generations do not follow. 

It is obvious, therefor^, that to make a plant involves 
as much thought in conception and genius in execution 
as to construct a locomotive engine, which, when once 
set in motion, would not only run forever, but while 
running would evolve other locomotives, as perfect as 
itself, endowing each with the mechanical faculty of 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. 95 

evolving from themselves successive generations of such 
machines. Now, if I cannot make this simple plant, can 
a being or thing of less intelligence do it ? or, more im- 
possible still, can the plant make itself ? and, to add to 
the preposterousness of the evolution absurdity, can a 
thing of less intelligence than itself have made it ? Is it 
not, then, impossible that this hypothesis can obtairt 
even a theoretical starting-point in nature, otherwise 
than by outraging common-sense and reason, ignoring 
the commonest principles of philosophy, and setting all 
science at naught ? And yet the evolutionists evade all 
this under the sophistical plea that it is none of their 
concern to be interested about the origin of things, 
knowing perfectly well that their theory cannot be har- 
monized with such an origin as the necessities of the 
work demand. 

Sophistry of Geologists Exposed. 

We introduce the following, which shows that the 
geologists and evolutionists are intensely interested 
about the origin of organic existence. Sir Charles 
Lyell, " Principles of Geology," p. 73, says : " Hutton's 
treatise, 'Theory of the Earth,' was the first in which 
geology was declared to be in no way concerned about 
questions as to the origin of things." This theory was 
published in 1788. Here we have the statement that up 
to this period there had not been a naturalist who did 
not acknowledge the creation of the world, all of whom 
w^ere therefore interested in the origin of things ; and 
from tradition or otherwise we may add that there had 
not appeared, even among heathen mythologists, one 
who did not also admit the fact of a universal deluge. 
Skeptical geology, then, dates no further back than Hut- 
ton, its father, not a hundred years ago. 



96 COSMOGONY. 

Lyell says (p. 5) of himself: "An attempt will be 
made in the sequel of this work to demonstrate that 
geology differs as widely from cosmogony as specula- 
tions concerning the mode of the first creation of man 
differ from history." Taking into account the seemingly 
designed ambiguity in this allusion, we may remark, as 
to apparent historic differences about the account 
given of the creation of man and the world by Moses 
and those of heathen tradition, which latter bear upon 
their face the marks of being corruptions of that ac- 
count, that there is no difference about the essential 
fact that man and the world were created, and by a pre- 
viously existing intelligent Being ; and not a historic in- 
timation is given that the world evolved by dead matter 
from dead matter. There is, then, just as wide a differ- 
ence between the views of the philosophers and natural- 
ists of ancient times, down to Hutton's day, and those of 
Lyell, as there is between his views and all those of the 
past, and also between all those of the past and all the 
deductions of modern science and philosophy, the former 
being more consonant with truth. 

On p. 14 Lyell also says : " But the most common and 
serious source of confusion [referring to the historic 
opinions of the naturalists] arose from the notion that it 
was the business of geology to discover the mode in 
which the earth originated." Lyell having adopted evo- 
lution, and knowing perfectly well its inadequacy to ac- 
count for the first existence of things, by this sophism 
attempts to ignore it, and yet no one acquainted with 
even this geologist's works but knows he does attempt, 
and even declares it to be the object of his whole book, 
to show that the world and its inhabitants came into ex- 
istence by the same uniform operation of nature as that 
which now exists, and that there never has been any 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. 97 

Other. He therefore admits that his only object in writ- 
ing his " Principles of Geology " is to show that the 
manner of the world's coming into existence was exactly 
that which now moves and controls her works, and that 
it did not come into existence by a creation as described 
by Moses. 

Mr. Darwin, " Descent of Man," p. 220, vol. i, speak- 
ing of the conversion of the great naturalists to his 
views, says : " Those naturalists who admit the principle 
of evolution, and this is admitted by the greater number 
of rising men," etc. What an altitude of intellectual 
greatness these rising men have reached, with Darwin as 
the star in the van, may be gathered from the following 
admission, p. 154 : "Undoubtedly it would be very in- 
teresting to have traced the development of each sepa- 
rate faculty from the state in which it exists in the lower 
animals to that in which it exists in man ; but neither 
my ability nor knowledge permits the attempt." Though 
inability is here admitted, yet it is taken for granted that 
all the faculties have existed in succession, and in the 
nicest shades of difference, all the way from a single 
one in the simplest organic thing to perfect maturity in 
man ; which also implies that the aggregate faculties of 
the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms sprang from 
a single primordial faculty, the simplest of all ; also that 
a single faculty could have produced another, as well as 
that it could have produced the compound faculties of 
which all living things and beings are endowed. 

Absurdity of the Theory that One Vital Organ Produces 
Another. 

The idea is that the heart of a man separated from 
his body and every other faculty could produce lungs, 
and the lungs of themselves could produce brains, etc. 
4 



98 COSMOGONY. 

The claim, however, is that this could only have been 
done by very small degrees ; but this only adds diffi- 
culty to the work of preserving from decomposition 
during the process, the things or faculties coming to- 
ward life, the impossibility of which appears on its very 
face. In addition to this we have what may be termed 
the backing-out position, thus stated by Hooker, and 
adopted by all the evolutionists : " No science doth 
make known the principles upon which it buildeth." 
Of course, evolution, having no principles upon which 
it is built, seizes with avidity such an absurd assertion ; 
but we have already shown that the evolutionists are ab- 
sorbingly interested in tracing the origin of man from 
the monkey, the monkey from the fish, the fish from a 
plant, and all plants from a single species : then, 
when the common progenitor or first faculty of it is 
reached, which is claimed to be only another link in the 
natural chain, they declare that they are not interested 
to go any further, and indeed that it is none of their 
business to explain the origin of things. This is beauti- 
ful. We have just seen that Darwin could trace all or- 
ganizations to this first faculty, provided he had the 
ability, admitting this to be the common origin ; and 
Lyell does not admit the least inability in tracing the 
evolution of the inorganic world to just such a state of 
things as that which exists at the present. But we ap- 
prehend that it is not so much the want of ability on 
the part of Darwin to explain how one faculty produced 
another, and in which respect he is infinitely lacking, 
as because the whole theory is erroneous and absurd, 
out of which no man can bring truth or even its ap- 
pearance, except upon the principle of evolution, which 
brings things out of others not containing them. 

If Hooker meant to admit that every science doth 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. 99 

make known the fact that it is absolutely inadequate to 
account for the principles of motion in organic exist- 
ence, it is acknowledging the prior existence of an in- 
telligent Being, to whose skill and power all the princi- 
ples of life and motion which the universe manifest are 
to be attributed. It is a fact that the natural sciences, 
designated by different names, are so interwoven and 
dependent on each other that no one of them can be 
understood and explained without reference to the 
others ; hence any erroneous conclusion drawn from 
one may be exposed by another. In illustration of this 
principle take the claim of evolution that all the facul- 
ties of organic life originated from a single faculty, 
therefore that one produced another. But physiology 
says no : it requires' all these faculties combined in a 
single body in order to make it live, and until it lives it 
cannot produce a faculty or a rudiment of one, or the 
smallest atom. Evolution says rudiments are first pro- 
duced, and by continuous reproduction develop into 
faculties. Physiology says no : it requires the exercise 
of a faculty in order to develop it, and this is the re- 
sult of life and motion, but the rudiment did not live 
and could not move, hence it could have had no exer- 
cise. If evolution says it consumed a whole year for 
the primordial or first living thing to come into exist- 
ence — and it says hundreds of years were required for 
this work — chemistry answers no : for the reason, first, 
that a thing of life must live in order to be proof against 
decomposition, and this -quality lasts as long as it lives, 
but when it dies it immediately begins to decompose, 
and in a few days all the vital organs are destroyed ; 
Secondly, as it requires all the vital faculties to make 
life possible, therefore that faculty made at the begin- 
ning of the year would decompose before the last was 



lOO COSMOGONY. 

completed, at the last of the year. Here, then, are facts 
in two of the best known sciences proving that evolu- 
tion is no science. This is not simple evidence, but ab- 
solute demonstration. The primordial did not possess 
all the organs or faculties essential to life — the lungs, 
heart, etc. — and therefore it did not live. If it pos- 
sessed them all in rudimental form, nascent lungs, heart, 
etc., such lungs could not breathe, and such a heart 
could not perform its function in the circulation of the 
blood ; they were therefore neither lungs nor heart at 
all. 

The Primordial Form could not have been Evolved. 

Hence, as the primordial never came into existence by 
evolution, and as this is claimed as the first link in the 
chain — and the peculiarity of this chain is that one link 
produces another from beginning to end — therefore there 
never was a second link, or any chain at all. And if the 
primordial was a living form, and should produce off- 
spring only composed of rudiments .of faculties, or a 
single rudiment in the place of one whose function was 
essential to life, still the thing would not live ; hence, 
again, the chain would cease to exist with the first link. 
The only alternative is that God created the first pro- 
genitors of animals, male and female, and the first plant 
of every species of living creatures and things, endow- 
ing each with the faculty of reproducing its kind, all 
livings just as did their parents ; and according to the 
universal voice of nature these were the only possible 
primordials. 

For the sake of the argument, however, we will admit 
that all living things did evolve, including the lesser 
work of the inorganic solar system, from homogeneous or 
nebulous matter, as the evolutionists claim. Here, then 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. lOI 

they may indulge their imagination and employ their 
ingenuity to their heart's content ; and we may even 
wish that Mr. Darwin were in the possession of his de- 
sired knowledge, to enable him to trace the first faculty 
as it appeared in the lower animal through every shade 
of descent or degree of advancement until it became a 
full development in man, as he claims was the fact. 

It will not be questioned that everything in nature 
answering a fixed purpose is so far perfect as to enable 
it to perform that purpose. Now, reasoning from the 
analogies of nature and her necessities, let us endeavor 
to ascertain the form of the primordial, and the pos- 
sibility of its having come into existence by evolution. 
In the first place, we may remark that if naturalists know 
it came into living being by the unassisted play of atoms, 
they must know equally well the manner in which the 
atoms started the operation. If I know that a man built 
a house, I know by its necessities the method he pur- 
sued in the work. If it be answered that as a house is 
not a thing of life, we can therefore comprehend the 
work, we reply, Neither was the primordial a thing of 
life until it possessed every vital organ the function of 
which was essential to life, and just as perfect as they 
now exist in every air-breathing animal. We do not 
mean to permit you to evade this task, and as it is self- 
imposed we ask you to meet it honestly, or frankly 
give up the claim of the truth of evolution. 

We know it would be easy for you to show how the 
vital organs or faculties repaired the ordinary decay of the 
living animal, at least the facts connected with the opera- 
tion ; but what you must show is, how it was possible 
for the simple atoms of which the living faculties were 
built up to enable the animal to begin to breathe with 
rudimental lungs, and hence to live. We grant that, 



r02 COSMOGONY, 

were all the animal faculties organized and connected in 
a body just as every animal has them, the atmospheric 
pressure would inflate the lungs, just as it does those of 
every new-born child, and it would live ; and no animal 
could otherwise live, as the existence and perfect forma- 
tion of every one of these faculties is itself a condition to 
life — a part of life itself. 

Conditions of Life. 

Life is not a single thing, substance, or faculty, but 
results from combination, just as steam power results 
from the organic boiler and engine connected in a cer- 
tain manner. 

The fact is, the common-sense of every man, includ- 
ing the evolutionists, is shocked with the suggestion that 
atoms of matter have any such power as is here necessi- 
tated, as the ability to do the work must have been first 
involved in the atoms before it could have evolved the 
work of forming all or any of the vital organs. Hence 
involution was before evolution, and must ha.ve been the 
work of supernatural power. 

So far as language goes, the primordial or common 
progenitor seems to be a nondescript — it is a thing which 
is, and yet is not. It is said to have been organic ; but 
this implies the prior existence of something capable of 
organizing it : and that must have been an organization 
itself, unless the idea that a simple element did the 
work, which we have shown was impossible. Besides, it 
is the undeviating work of the gases or elements to de- 
compose all animal and vegetable bodies, and the only 
thing by which their destroying work is restrained is 
animal and plant life. Instead, therefore, of the gases 
entering into combination to form the progenitor and 
get it ready to live, it was their work to dissolve it into 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. IO3 

its elements. Now, as there must have been an organic 
thing to organize the progenitor, therefore the first was 
not the first. The only other solution to the dilemma is 
that the primordial is only another name for the God of 
creation. It is said to be a progenitor ; but as male and 
female are essential to offspring, the one must have been 
two. It required a creator to make Eve of Adam ; but 
evolution obtains a pair from one. 

If the progenitor was a plant, as the theory necessi- 
tates — for it was the simplest form of life — then it was 
organized according to the laws of vegetable life, and 
could not have grown from seed, for as yet there had 
been no plants to produce seed : and if it did come 
from a seed, it only renders the organic work more dif- 
ficult for evolution or any power to perform, as it must 
have produced the seed, incorporating into its structure 
every faculty, function, or phase of peculiarity necessary 
to form the plant growing from it, of course in embryo. 
Besides, this would prove that the first plant progenitor 
was not the first, as it came from seed. As this plant, 
like all others, was composed of about ninety-five per 
cent, of the gases of the air, it must have come to ma- 
turity surrounded by air, and set in soil ; but as soil is 
formed by the decomposition of vegetation, and as yet 
there had been no vegetation to decompose, therefore 
there was no soil. Of course this reasoning is based on 
the assumption that nature always works upon the same 
uniform principle, and for which the whole school of 
evolutionists most strenuously contend. Thus : we are 
furnished with the most favorable circumstances, or en- 
vironment, as Tyndall calls it, that the nature of the 
case admits for bringing the primordial into existence, 
but yet its commencement is impossible. We are not to 
be diverted from the question by these wild speculators 



i04 COSMOGONY. 

or induced to go in search of lost links in the chain of 
existence ; for here we see that there can be no chain, 
because there is not the first link, and the peculiarity 
alleged for this chain is that one link produces another. 
Huxley gives us the following definition of evolution : 
" The hypothesis of evolution supposes that in any given 
period in the past we should meet with a state of things 
more or less similar to the present, but less similar in 
proportion as we go back in time ; that the physical 
form of the earth could be traced back in this way to a 
condition of things in which its parts were separated as 
little more than a nebulous cloud making part of a whole 
in which we find the sun and the other planetary bodies 
also resolved ; and that if we traced back the animal and 
vegetable world, we should find preceding what now 
exists animals and plants, not identical with them, but like 
them, only increasing their differences as we go back in 
time, and at the same time becoming simpler and simpler 
until finally we should arrive at that gelatinous mass 
which, so far as our present knowledge goes, is the com- 
mon foundation of all life. [Hence God is not such 
foundation.] The tendency of science is to justify the 
speculation that that also could be traced further back, 
perhaps to the general nebulous origin of matter. [The 
nebulae was matter itself.] The hypothesis of evolution 
supposes that in all this vast progression there would be 
no breach of continuity, no point at which we could 
say, * This is a natural process, and this is not a natural 
process.' " — Tribune Report. It will be seen by this 
definition that evolution is founded on the supposition 
that animals and vegetables grow simpler and simpler in 
their physical structure as we go back in time and to- 
ward the matter in which the first originated, and that 
that was a nebulous cloud. 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. I05 

Evolution Reversed upon its Own Principles. 

Now, if we show the exact reverse of this to be true, 
science and philosophy — that is, if one living thing 
evolved from another — then the further you go back in 
time the more complex and perfect will each preceding 
thing be, necessitating the conclusion that the first was 
the most exquisite and wonderful organization of all, 
and that each has grown simpler and simpler until man 
comes into being, who is the very simplest of all. We 
say if we prove this, then evolution cannot be true science. 
We state it as a self-evident truth that evolution presup- 
poses prior involution. For example, an egg cannot 
evolve a chicken unless its embryo was first involved in 
the egg. A seed cannot evolve a tree unless the embryo 
tree was involved in the seed. If the polyp, which re- 
produces by ova as well as buds, evolved the serpent, it 
must have involved the embryo serpent. If the serpent 
evolved the fish, the serpent must have involved the em- 
bryo fish. If the fish evolved the bird, the fish must 
have involved the embryo bird. If the monkey evolved 
the man, the monkey must have involved the embryo 
man. Here we see that the polyp not only involved the 
embryo of its own kind, but embryos within embryos of 
the serpent, fish, bird, monkey, and man, each losing an 
embryo in succession as man is approached, and there- 
fore each degenerating to a simpler and simpler organic 
thing, leaving man the very simplest of. all. Supposing, 
then, the polyp to have been the primordial, or common 
progenitor, it must have had incorporated into its or- 
ganic structure, in embryonic perfection, every individual 
of every species of plant and animal kind, including that 
of the whole planetary system. But this wonderful in- 
volvement of the mechanism of the universe, being the 



lo6 COSMOGONY. 

most perfect of all, is the furthest from being a subject 
of evolution. This is confirmed by the fact that the 
subjects of its offspring instead of progressing must have 
retrograded in the exact ratio as man was approximated. 
Secondly, as it involved the living and moving universe 
with all its wonderful dynamics, it could only have re- 
ceived the endowment by a prior existing Being of in- 
telligence and power equal to the direct creation of such 
a universe. We have already alluded to the fact, which 
should be kept in mind, that according to evolution it is 
the successive generations which advance organic being, 
from which it follows that if the first living thing at- 
tempted to be brought into existence had not arrived at 
maturity the first season, no matter how near it approxi- 
mated to it, the unfinished parts would have decomposed 
before another season camte round, undoing all that was 
done. Such a work, therefore, is, in th-e nature of 
things, limited to as short a process as that which is im- 
plied in the account of creation in Genesis. 

If Evolution Ever Existed, it is a Rapid Process. 

The ratio of time required, as is here shown, to bring 
the common progenitor into existence, would evolve the 
lowest monkey into the grandest model of human kind 
in a single season ; and such a feat would admit of no 
just comparison with that implied in bringing the first 
organic thing from inorganic atoms, as there is infinitely 
greater superiority and difference between the lowest 
living form and the most magnificent inanimate orb. 
Indeed, such a ratio of speed would evolve an angel 
from a man in a single season, and in the same time 
every species of living things in the scale of being into 
the next higher. This, by the way, would make the 
whole process one of catastrophisra instead of evolution. 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. I07 

supposing it had an existence at all ; and how does it 
appear, if we admit the claim of its advocates that the 
process of organic evolution, as well as of the inorganic 
world, consumed centuries and epochs in the accomplish- 
ment of the work ? 

What we mean by embryonic possession is that all the 
elements of a tree were involved in the seed from which 
it grew ; for if the organic function endowing the tree 
with the ability to form the seed had not been incorpo- 
rated, then the seed might evolve the tree, with every 
other essential attribute, but the species would be extin- 
guished at the death of that tree ; and were this the 
original progenitor, it would not have been a progenitor 
at all, as nothing could have come from it. Suppose, 
further, that the chemical substance giving each species 
of fruit its peculiar flavor had not been involved in the 
organism of the first seed, the consequence would have 
been that the tree would have produced a certain fruit 
in appearance, with every other property except flavor, 
but lacking this it could not be identified as any particu- 
lar kind of fruit. From these simple illustrations it will 
be seen that the law of real evolution is limited to repro- 
duction after its kind, knowing nothing whatever of the 
skillful endowment involved in the atoms and combina- 
tions, which alone give the starting point to organic 
things, leaving them only to be accounted for as objects 
of direct creation ; and while this reproductive evolu- 
tion requires no intelligence, the organization of the 
simplest thing of the universe manifests phenomena no 
human intellect is able to fathom, or power of nature to 
produce. 

Here is embodied the most supreme wisdom ; now, 
whence was it derived, or what allied it with everything 
of life and motion, animate or inanimate ? How came 



I08 COSMOGONY. 

universal nature to be endowed with this stupendous 
wisdom and power, manifested in her wonderful exist- 
ences and adaptations ? The atheist may answer, the 
seed evolved the tree and the tree the seed ; but 
this is an attempt to reason in a circle when there is no 
circle, for there was a beginning and will be an end, and 
it is only an evasion of the inquiry, betraying the weak- 
ness and defenselessness of his cause. It were just as 
proper to say the steam moves the engine and the en- 
gine exhausts the steam, while the only true answer the 
question admits is that the steam-engine was made for a 
purpose and answers that purpose, just as everything in 
nature answering a purpose was also thus made. Every 
one must see that it is upon this point evolution must be 
sustained, if at all ; but in the absence of definition, as the 
only alternative they wish it to be inferred that the in- 
telligence manifested is one of the natural elements the 
seed contains, like the coloring matter, flavor, etc. ; but 
these are the arrangements and endowments of the par- 
ticles, while the intelligence is the power that arranged 
and endowed, which was therefore abstract and existed 
before. Every movement and phenomenon of nature 
only unfolds and fulfills the original and grand design 
of Him " who created all things by the word of his 
power." 

Creation First, Evolution Next. 

Thus, in universal nature we have two distinct powers 
manifested, though a single source. First, creation, 
comprehending the world and the representatives of all 
organic species, endowed with the faculty of reproduc- 
ing their kind. Secondly, limited evolution, or the com- 
pulsory unfolding of such endowment. 

The application of these facts of nature demonstrate 



SCRIPTURE OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. I09 

that Darwinism could never have obtained a start ; and 
having no existence it follows that no array of supposed 
or real facts or theoretic speculations, no matter how 
plausible their seeming or upon whatever authority for 
the time being they may seem to rest, or whether they 
can be otherwise explained, are entitled to the least 
weight. As well suppose such evidence to be of suffi- 
cient force to overthrow the phenomena of nature that 
the rays of the sun produce light and heat, or that the 
elements when thrown out of balance seek their equi- 
librium. This argument rests on the impregnable foun- 
dation that the facts and philosophy of nature must be 
in harmony, and therefore any seeming conflict arises 
from a want of the knowledge of such facts and their 
true scientific teaching. If we are unable to understand 
the teaching of a certain fact or class of facts claimed to 
belong to one science, and from which certain ideas are 
supposed to be taught, wrong inferences may always be 
exposed by applying to them the well-known principles 
of other sciences, all of which must harmonize with 
truth, though not always with appearances. If this rea- 
sonable and reliable rule had been steadily followed in 
the interpretation of nature, the world would have been 
relieved of much of its error and bigoted intolerance, 
and scientists would have investigated every phase of 
the facts and phenomena of organic and inorganic ex- 
istence, including those belonging to every science^ — an 
investigation essential to enable them to judge correctly 
of any — and this implies a perfect knowledge of material 
atoms and the laws by which they are governed. With- 
out such knowledge it is mere presumption to attempt 
an estimate of their capabilities or incapabilities, or to 
say what may or what may not result from them without 
the aid of mind. 



COSMOGONY. 

Spealv, dead Nature, didst tliou to being bring 
A man, a beast, a plant, or living thing? 
Say ! from thy dead silence who thee woke. 
Or broke thy spell eternal ? it was Grod that spoke. 
Man, hush thine arrogance, thy pride be still ; 
Carve not for thee a destiny so ominous of ill ! 
To shiver in the darksome world below. 
And not the genial voice of God to know. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. 

If Genesis Falls so do the Rest of the Scriptures. 

The evolutionists seem to think that in denying the 
truth of the record of the man who wrote Genesis, and 
in order to make a new genesis of the world, it is not 
necessary to oppose the other parts of the Bible, espe- 
cially the New Testament. We propose, however, to 
show that these are so connected that to reject one is to 
reject the other. If the account of creation in Genesis 
falls, Christ and the Apostles follow ; if the Book of 
Genesis is erroneous, so also are the Gospels. We are 
also free to acknowledge that, if Moses was the author 
of the writings attributed to his pen, though learned in 
all the wisdom of the Egyptians, whose mythology even 
the evolutionists esteem as of very high authority, yet 
in his cosmological science he might have made very 
serious mistakes ; but if a God of infinite wisdom con- 
ceived and dictated them, then He is their author, and 
there can be no inharmony between their teaching and 
the rest of the Bible, nor conflict with the true science 
and philosophy of the world. 

The account Moses himself gives (assuming him to 
have been the writer of the Biblical record of creation) 
of the authorship of these writings is that God wrote 
some of them with his own finger on tables of stone, 
and the rest Moses wrote as God spoke the words. In 
the second place, the New Testament declares that 



112 COSMOGONY. 

" Moses was a prophet mighty in word and in deed," 
and quotes his writings as inspired Scripture, without 
criticism or mutilation, or even insinuating that they had 
been changed or corrupted from their original purity, 
and never intimating a doubt as to God's being their 
author, but, on the contrary, denominates them "the 
scriptures of truth." Even Jesus Christ himself makes 
these acknowledgments. 

We are free to confess that one of our motives in this 
connection is to compel these modern scientists to aban- 
don what we conceive to be a heartless assent to the 
truth of the rest of the Scriptures after the rejection of 
the Mosaic writings ; or to Christianity after rejecting 
the divine origin of the Scriptures, even those written 
by Moses. Let them have moral courage enough to 
hoist their true colors. It is our profound conviction 
that he who does not accept the divine authority of the 
Scriptures cannot be conversant with the grounds upon 
which rest the arguments in their defense ; it is not for 
the want of capacity to understand, but the want of hon- 
est investigation and humility enough to admit the 
truth when seen. We have fully argued this question in 
another work,* showing that as the Scriptures came by 
direct inspiration and revelation, they must contain God's 
ideas and purposes with regard to man and the world ; 
from which it follows that it has been as necessary for 
him to have preserved the ideas and words which de- 
scribe this purpose free from corruption or change, as to 
have at first inspired them ; guarding the translations 
while passing from one language into another, and even 
miraculously preserving and providentially spreading 
that version, if there are differences, the most per- 
fectly describing these truths and designs ; but we make 
* " Philosophy of God and the World." 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. H3 

the assertion that there is not one truth or doctrine 
taught in any version (made prior to the last fifty years 
of the Christian era), which is left out of any other ever 
published ; neither is there a single truth or doctrine 
taught in any one version which is not taught in all the 
others ; and we hold ourselves responsible to vindicate 
this position. 

Words are signs of ideas, and the words of Scripture 
are the signs of God's ideas. All of the words, there- 
fore, which he has ever employed to make known his 
mind and will to man must be contained in what is 
called " King James's version." The opinion that this 
version or any other contains the ideas and doctrines of 
men mixed with those of God leaves the world essen- 
tially without a divine revelation ; for who is to decide 
which is divine and which human ? In confirmation of 
this position we have such passages as the following : 
"The words of the Lord 2xq puj^e words : as silver tried 
in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thoic shalt 
keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this 
generation for ever." (Ps. 12:6, 7). Bigots have tried 
to corrupt and destroy the Bible, but the Lord has pre- 
served it from the furnace of fire and from the attempt 
of ^' this'' present generation to destroy it by declaring 
it corrupt. 

The Whole Gospel is in the Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
7nent. 

It is evident that if Paul preached the whole gospel, 
it was contained in Moses and the Prophets ; and if any 
one will study the types of the law and the predictions 
of the prophets he will find that they embrace the entire 
Christian system, and that those pointing out the work 
of its founder at his first mission will find its exact ful- 
fillment in the events through which he passed. 



114 COSMOGONY. 

In his plea before King Agrippa, Paul says : " Having 
therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day 
witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things 
than Moses a7id the prophets did say should corned (Acts 
26 : 22). And at this time there was no New Testament. 
To the same import is Christ's own testimony thus : 
" Think not that I am come to destroy, but to fulfill 
For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one 
jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be 
fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word 
shall not pass away." How, then, can the Scriptures of 
Moses be corrupted either by ignorance or design ? The 
emphatic language is," Not one jot or tittle," which cer- 
tainly includes as much as a word which changes an idea, 
"In any wise," either by translation or interpretation. 
These are the expressions of the author who holds the 
copyright. 

Now, to suit the notions of geologists, but which the 
science of nature does not require, if the meaning of the 
words and consequently the ideas which are employed 
by Moses in describing the creation and deluge be so 
changed, can such opinions be regarded in any other 
light than mere arrogant human invention ? And if 
written in a book called a translation of the Scriptures, 
it can never secure the protection of God to keep it in 
existence, or His providence to give it circulation. In- 
deed, every copy of such a book can be seized and 
burned, but the Bible cannot be thus exterminated. Its 
author also said : " If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose 
from the dead." (Luke 16 : 31). Here the writings of 
Moses and the prophets are not only indorsed, but it is 
declared that to believe them secures the salvation of 
the gospel ; they must therefore contain the whole sys- 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. II 5 

tern. After His resurrection Christ meets the disciples 
and discourses to them thus : '' O fools, and slow of 
heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken ! 
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to 
enter into his glory ? And beginning at Moses, and all 
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scrip- 
tures the things concerning himself. And he said unto 
them, These are the words which I spake unto you while 
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which 
were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, 
and in the psalms concerning me. Then opened he 
their understanding, that they might understand the 
Scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, 
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from 
the dead the third day." (Luke 24 : 25-27, 44-46.) 

Moses wrote between 2143 ^.nd 2183 of the world, 
during the forty years' journey in the wilderness. He 
could therefore have known nothing of the creation or 
the deluge, only as God inspired him to look back and 
see it as he saw it when it occurred. This account was 
not handed down by tradition ; for Christ never coun- 
tenanced tradition. He said to the Jewish teachers : 
" Ye have made void the law by your tradition" (Mark- 
7 : 13) ; and he declared, as we have seen, that the 
writings of Moses were Scripture ; and God inspired 
Paul to write : ^'' All Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God" (2 Tim. 3 : 16). Christ and the apostles, as well 
as most of the prophets, quote the record of the Mosaic 
account of the creation of the world and its deluge by 
the flood, and that without change of language or criti- 
cism. As to the latter Christ says : " For as in the days 
that were before the flood, they were eating and drink- 
ing, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that 
Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood 



Tl6 COSMOGONY. 

came and took them all away : so shall also the coming 
of the Son of Man be." (Matt. 24 : 38, 39.) 

Speaking of this record, Peter says : " And if God 
spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth 
person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood 
upon the world of the ungodly," etc. (2 Pet. 2 : 5.) 
Again he says : " For this they willingly are ignorant of, 
that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and 
the earth standing out of the water and in the water : 
whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with 
water, perished." (2 Pet. 3 : 5, 6.) Here is affirmed, by 
Christ and the apostles, the argument that the writings 
of Moses are inspired scripture, and especially his rec- 
ord of the creation and flood. Whoever, therefore, 
denies the statements of Moses equally denies those of 
Christ and the apostles. 

The Bible Standard of Ethics too High to he Improved. 

A system of philosophy or ethics adapted to elevate 
mankind indefinitely must present a standard for imita- 
tion so high that it will not only develop the highest 
manhood and citizenship, but to such a degree that it 
can never be superseded by society or individuals be- 
coming more perfect than the standard, and yet so prac- 
ticable that every i'em of it may be understood and imi- 
tated by all. That such is the moral code of Jesus 
Christ, and that it stands alone in its simple grandeur, 
has never been questioned. For the benefit of those 
who may not be familiar with this standard, let us tran- 
scribe an epitome of it : " Ye have heard that it hath 
been said. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. 
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil ; but whoso- 
ever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the 
other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. II7 

and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would 
borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Ye have heard 
that it hath been said. Thou shalt love thy neighbor and 
hate thine enem}^ But I say unto you, Love your ene- 
mies, bless them that curse you and persecute you : that 
ye may be the children of your Father which is in 
heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and 
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the un- 
just. For if ye love them that love you, what reward 
have ye ? do not even the publicans the same ? And if 
ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others ? 
do not even the publicans the same ? Be ye therefore 
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 

After denouncing the great crimes by name, he lays 
down a principle so broad and yet so simple that every 
accountable being may understand and expound it for 
himself, and which is therefore of universal application : 
" As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even 
so unto them." It is true these actions are only ethical; 
but as they are to be performed under the immediate 
observation of God and with a single eye to his glory — 
"For whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," thus 
comprehending the prompting motives — they make the 
whole life one of devout and honest Christian worship. 
We say Christian worship ; for they are also to be done 
for Christ's sake. 

Here, then, is the highest standard for the develop- 
ment of mankind, mentally, morally, physically, socially, 
and religiously, which it is possible to conceive ; and if 
the actions enjoined were universally followed the ne- 
cessity for civil law and prisons would be obviated, as 
not a species of vice or wrong could exist. And if the 
acts were performed with a desire to please God, it 



Il8 COSMOGONY. 

would show that the nature of the men who performed 
them was fashioned like that of Christ himself, and 
hence mankind fitted to be loyal subjects of his eternal 
kingdom. 

The first of these conditions of fitness is the highest 
civilization, the second is Christianity. The first does 
not include the second, but the second does include the 
first. In other words, a man may be the highest possible 
type of morality and not be a Christian. God or Christ 
may not be in all his thoughts. He loves his fellow-men, 
and discharges all his obligations toward them ; but he 
does not love his Maker, and therefore discharges no 
obligation he owes him. ^' Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." 
He lives in perpetual violation of the first part of the 
command, and keeps the second. Hence he is just as 
much a sinner in the sight of God as though he had 
disobeyed all of his commands. It is not necessary for 
a man to violate all the laws of a civil state in order to 
be a criminal. If he is a murderer he need not be a 
thief in order to be an offender. 

The Standai'd of Atheism also thus Contrasted. 

The standard of human development set up by the 
evolutionists, or atheists, is in the widest possible con- 
trast to this. Prof. Tyndall declares its object to be to 
" lift the lite to a higher level." But the Bible lifts its 
warning voice against the prostitution of the godlike 
powers of man to such an ignoble purpose as groveling 
among the lower animals in search of his progenitor. 
It is recorded in the first chapter of Romans, which we 
here introduce with a few comments. 

" For the invisible things of God are clearly seen from 
[or by] the creation of the world, even his eternal power 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. II9 

and godhead ; so that they are without excuse. Be- 
cause that when they knew God [as Darwin, Tyndall, 
Lyell, and Huxley did once at least, so far as to see from 
the works of nature the revelation of a personal cre- 
ator — a godhead of eternal power] they glorified him 
not as God [by descending in search of gods of power 
in inorganic matter, and among the lower animals for the 
origin of their own existence] ; but became vain in 
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and 
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an im- 
age made like to corruptible man [like man, of course, 
is a monkey ; all the god from whom man came was a 
monkey, and it from a lower creeping thing. Behold 
how they have degraded God, their Maker !], and to 
birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things [among 
which they search for their ancestors] ; and changed the 
truth of God into a lie [" God made man in his own 
image " is the truth ; that he came from these creeping 
things is the lie], and worshiped the creature more 
than the Creator." 

Professor Tyndall gives us an expression of his rever- 
ence for the matter out of which he sprung in his Bel- 
fast speech, thus : " I can see in that matter upon which 
we in our ignorance pour such opprobrium the potency 
of life and promise of being." It seems as though Paul 
was inspired to write of the coming of the evolutionists, 
and to characterize their worship as the lowest form of 
idolatry : the corrupting, coarse, foolish wisdom and de- 
grading tendency of their groveling, brutal ideas of the 
godless origin of man. It is a law of nature that if we 
habitually mingle with those beneath us in morals and 
intellect, we either bring them up to our standard or we 
go down to theirs. Thus a man may so give his time 



I20 COSMOGONY. 

and attention to horses that they become objects of his 
devotion. We once knew a very wealthy man who by 
such association had descended so near the level of a 
horse that he gave in his stable a great supper to his 
friends. So, if a man devotes himself to the study of 
matter and the lower forms of life, and especially if by 
so doing he hopes thereby to find evidences to relieve 
his mind of the conviction that God made him, and that 
he came up from these four-footed beasts and creeping 
things, it will be natural for his foolish heart (his desire 
to have it so) and his mind, his intellect, to become so 
darkened as finally to believe the wicked lie, and no 
longer see in nature the necessity for the existence of a 
creation or a creator. From thenceforth he pays his 
devotions to the creature ; and instead of seeing in him- 
self, as he once did, the handiwork of the great Creator, 
he would fain trace his descent down through monkeys, 
four-footed beasts, birds, serpents, and the lowest creep- 
ing things. The highest form of idolatry sees God rep- 
resented in the images of art or nature, while the lowest 
sees no God beyond and superior to nature : the wor- 
shiper himself being the highest manifestation of wisdom, 
he becomes absorbed in his own selfish admiration. 

Monkey Origin of Man Darwin s Main Conclusion. 

That Mr. Darwin, the father of this theory, believes 
himself to have thus descended, is evinced by the follow- 
ing : " The main conclusion arrived at in this work, 
namely, that man is descended from some lowly organ- 
ized form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to 
many persons. For my own part I would as soon be 
descended from that little monkey who braved his 
dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper, 
or from that old baboon, who, descending from the 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. 121 

mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade 
from a crowd of astonished dogs, as from a savage who 
delights to torture his enemies." (" Descent of Man," 
vol. ii., p. sS6.) 

He does not care to remember that the savage had 
become a savage by his ancestors refusing to retain God 
in their thoughts as he himself is now doing ; and as the 
above is the highest teaching of evolutionists, if their 
success were equal to their desire, in the course of a few 
generations they would degrade the whole human family 
to the level of mere savages. Hear Darwin : " Man still 
bears in his bodily form the indelible stamp of his 
lowly origin." Behold how he thus defaces the image 
of God ; for " He created man in His own image." It 
is clear from such passages that no words of ours can 
place the evolutionists below a level warranted by their 
own confessions. 

In his " History of Civilization," M. Guizot thus de- 
fines civilization : " Two elem.ents, then, seem to be com- 
pressed into the great fact called civilization ; two cir- 
cumstances are necessary to its existence. It lives upon 
two conditions, and reveals itself by two systems : the 
progress of individuals and the progress of society ; the 
melioration of the social system and the experience of 
the mind — the mental faculties of man. It may, I think, 
be fairly inferred that it is the spontaneous, intuitive 
conviction of mankind, that the two elements of civili- 
zation — the social and moral development — are so inti- 
mately connected that at the approach of one, man looks 
for the other." (Pp. 25, 27.) 

We believe there can be but one opinion in regard to 
this definition, except that it is too circumscribed by 
leaving out the religious element. We judge, however, 
the author includes this in what he calls the " moral ele- 



122 COSMOGONY. 

ment," which history shows lies at the bottom of all 
phases of civilization. 

Paganism produces Pagan civilization ; Mohammedan- 
ism produces Mohammedan civilization ; while Christi- 
anity produces Christian civilization. Without religion, 
therefore, there can be no progress, no civilization. This 
arises from the fact that moral obligation has its source in 
religious conviction, and the conviction results from the 
conception and recognition of the existence of a Supreme 
Being, to whom, as his Creator, man is accountable, and 
consequently answerable for his conduct. To ignore, 
therefore, the religious element, is equally to exclude the 
civil. Let us suppose, now, that evolution succeeds in 
putting aside the Christian religion by the acceptance of 
the idea that the Bible record of the creation and of the 
Creator is merely one of the many superstitions to be 
ignored in the cosmological history of the world ; that the 
Christian's cherished divinity, like the rest of the gods, is a 
mere poetical myth ; that there is no higher intellectual 
being in the universe than man himself, hence no higher 
standard toward which to advance, and in his religious 
aspirations none higher to worship ; or if he venerates 
the great First Cause, which he supposes brought him 
into being, he must seek it in the descending lineage of 
ancestral baboons, snakes, and shell-fish, and even in 
the lowest vegetable thing of life ; — suppose, we say, 
evolution succeeds in this, and the beginning of life is 
traced to its primordial, must it not, in the very nature 
of things, degrade to its level him who makes the dis- 
covery ? It even degrades us to write of it. If this 
doctrine be accepted, it will turn the moral and intel- 
lectual world, with more than electric speed, back to the 
darkest midnight of human history, and to the most 
damning degradation possible to contemplate. 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. 1 23 

Savage Life not the Noi'inal Condition of Man. 

Mr. Darwin says : " The philosophy, however, of the 
first advance of savages toward civilization is at the 
present day too difficult to solve." This is a virtual ad- 
mission that it never occurred ; and the reason is, there 
were no higher beings with whom the savages were 
acquainted and after whom to pattern ; this conduct 
being essential to progress. Had not the more advanced 
European mingled with the aboriginal American, there 
had never been any nobler specimens of red men ; but 
many of them have, in the short period of five centuries, 
reached the highest form of civilization — that of intelli- 
gent Christianity. Indeed, the progress of man from 
savage to civilized life, associating with the enlightened 
and refined, is as natural as that society blends and 
modifies extreme peculiarities of physical, moral, and 
mental character, and as scientific as that inorganic 
nature— temperature, electricity, air, and indeed all the 
fluids — after having been thrown out of balance, seek 
and find their equilibrium. The equilibrium of inor- 
ganic elements is nature's normal condition ; when dis- 
turbed, the equalizing work is their own. So, in organic 
nature, the highest civilization is her normal condition, 
sin is her disturbing element, and man's divergence 
from the Bible standard of truth is toward savage life. 
Had the white man carried to the red man nothing but 
the highest civilization — pure Christianity — and in all 
his dealings with him acted according to the rule, " As 
ye would men should do unto you, do ye even so unto 
them," long ere this the Indians would have risen above 
the highest civilization of any people of any time. It is 
true Columbus took along with him men who could 
teach the " golden rule " to the savage, but he also car- 



124 COSMOGONY. 

ried the fire-water of death and the more deadly wea- 
pons of slaughter ; and no ship ever bore a missionary 
to the heathen but that also carried these emissaries of 
sin. As therefore the war of inorganic elements is de- 
viation, unnatural — their savage life, if you please — so 
with organic man : his savageness is deviation from the 
laws of God, and therefore unnatural ; and the term be- 
ing a comparative one, every man is more or less savage 
until he takes Christ as his pattern. This restores him to 
his normal state. " God hath made man upright ; but 
he has sought out many inventions." (Eccl. 7 : 29.) 

Inorganic nature reveals to us the work of the God of 
nature — using the term God as a synonym for nature, 
the worship of which is natural religion. If, therefore, 
nature manifests savage and relentless cruelty ; is unjust, 
partial, and selfish, disappointing man's reasonable hopes 
and demands ; is generally fitful and precarious, indulg- 
ing in so many freaks that no dependence can be placed 
on her, by those too who must subsist on her constancy 
or perish ; then might organic man, emanating from the 
same source, have also been thus savage. If, on the 
other hand, there are found in this department of nature, 
corrective, modifying, and restoring influences, even for 
these her exceptional manifestations, so that when she 
exhibits these ill tempers and wayward freaks they are 
very soon brought under control — civilized, so to speak 
— then man, the head of organic nature in his normal 
state, was a civilized being ; but, like his inorganic 
sister, susceptible of falling into wayward and even sav- 
age pranks. Indeed, our first parents must have been 
created with the most perfectly balanced mental, moral, 
and physical faculties, and therefore in the most perfect 
harmony with the mind and feelings of their Creator, as 
well as with those of their coming offspring. 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. 1 25 

The Present World Designed to be Only Temp07'a7'y. 

Notwithstanding this perfect condition both of man's 
nature and the world, it was designed to be only tem- 
porary. The human progenitors must have been, and as 
we conceive were, placed in the highest and safest condi- 
tion of which they were capable and of answering the 
purposes of their Maker. There was one kind of knowl- 
edge which in this primitive life they could not have 
possessed — namely, experience — because it comes 
from action ; and the effect of the first act of disobedience 
can only be known after the act is committed. He who 
commits it, feeling its effects, can then compare good 
and evil, and know^s both, as his Maker knew them be- 
fore. " And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has 
become as one of us, to know good and evil." (Gen. 
3:22.) As they were endowed with a will, giving the 
power to obey, the power to disobey is inferred ; from 
which it also follows that they were thus placed so high 
in the scale of being that it was only possible to govern 
them by moral force, or appeal to motive. It is absurd to 
suppose that the power that made man — formed him of 
the elements of the ground — could not have unmade, 
transformed him into those elements, so that he would 
have been as though he had not been ; but this would 
have been extinction, not government. If a man refuses 
to obey, preferring to suffer the penalty,, he defies all 
authority, all power, and conquers, though by that act he 
ceases to exist. 

This, then, is the philosophy of sin ; and the fact with 
which we have to do is that sin entered into the world 
with its dreadful experiences ; and in dealing with it we 
shall employ the common-sense method described by 
Moses, quoted by Jesus and the apostles, the wisdom of 



126 COSMOGONY. 

which is confirmed by the universal observation and ex- 
perience of mankind ; for where is he who has not know- 
ingly committed an act as inexcusable as that of our 
first parents ? Instead of their progressive development, 
we think the increasing tendency to habits of mental, 
moral, and physical transgression not only involves the 
degeneracy, but the extinction of the human family, in 
the absence of any other cause, or if the Creator does 
not previously interfere to wind up the world's history. 
This, however, is a part of His plan and revealed deter- 
mination; and then He proposes its re-creation into a 
world of absolute perfection, and therefore of eternal 
duration, and to people it with those men and women 
who, while in the temporary life, submitted to let Him 
change and mold their whole mind into that of Christ's, 
including the will, thoughts, and feelings, and raising 
them, if dead, to immortality, or to a state so perfect 
that they will be exempt from the liability of death. 

Without a Knowledge of the End Designed^ the World is 
an Enigma. 

Without taking into account the consummation of this 
great revealed plan — which is God's explanation and 
defense of the creation of this temporary and deranged 
world — no man can understand either the mental, moral, 
or physical disorder manifested in the organic and in- 
organic world. The first two chapters of the Scriptures 
contain the history of the creation of the present, tem- 
porary world, while the last two chapters give the pre- 
historic record of its re-creation and that of its inhabi- 
tants into the eternal world. " He that sat upon the 
throne said, Behold ! I make all things new. And I 
saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven 
and the first earth had passed away." (Rev. 21 : 1-5.) 



CHRISTIANITV AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. 1^7 

Wherever, therefore, this reward as an inducement to 
virtue and sacrifice is known, the conditions will be ac- 
cepted by some ; and these will be the highest examples 
of civilized manhood. 

The law of imitation leaves no ground for Darwin's 
opinion that the primitive condition of man was savage. 
Let us suppose that a few families of savages were 
placed in the midst of a community or city of the most 
civilized of men. In a few generations they would be- 
come as highly civilized as the community. On the 
other hand, if the same number of families of the most 
civilized were placed with a tribe of savages, in the same 
number of generations they would become equally sav- 
age, and considering the inclination of man to imitate 
the evil instead of the good, the civilized would become 
savage sooner than the savage would become civilized. 
The few, being unable to elevate the mass to their stan- 
dard, would descend to that of their neighbors ; and all 
in accordance with the law of natural assimilation. 

The occurrence of such facts, many of which are re- 
corded in history, are illustrative of the proneness of 
man rather to degenerate than to progress. It is his- 
toric that a very small portion of mankind are or ever 
have been savage, while most of the nations of different 
periods have been barbarous or semi-civilized ; and no 
one will dispute the fact that all have been sinners — 
that is, every man and woman has knowingly violated 
their own sense of right, as well as the physical laws of 
their nature. Hence sin is the unnatural and destroy- 
ing element of man, while his primitive or normal state 
was loyalty to the laws of his being as well as to those 
of his Maker. The deviations were acquired, and in 
their extreme culmination developed the savage. The 
Bible account of the introduction of this disturbing ele- 



128 COSMOGONY. 

ment into the world is therefore not only natural, but 
harmonizes with the observation and common experi- 
ence of mankind : while the theory that man was origi- 
nally savage and is progressing toward universal civili- 
zation, is in opposition to all history and the philosophy 
of human nature as it is ; proving that he was once per- 
fect, and will in time become extinct — toward which time 
the species as a whole are rapidly approaching.' 

Real Progress 7mist be Physical, Moral, and Mental. 

Manlcind are endowed with judgment approving good- 
ness and a desire for knowledge. If we admit the prin- 
ciple that true progress comprehends the advancement 
of the mental, moral, and physical powers, we must ad- 
mit that it equally forbids the development of either 
at the expense of the others, from the fact that they are 
so interwoven that if one suffers the others must, whether 
the cause is constitutional or a direct penalty resulting 
from a violation of the laws of healtl^. If man is edu- 
cated in the present age and has a cultivated mind — 
who has been, as we think, appropriately defined as " one 
who knows something about everything and eveijthing 
about something " — such a strain has been given to his 
brain, as the mental organism and source of the ner- 
vous system, that it results in the shortening of life : that 
is, if the physical system is not vigorous enough to re- 
pair the waste of the brain resulting from its severe tax. 
In corroboration of this we may mention the fact that 
among all those who have attained remarkable longevity 
in modern times, there has not been an instance of su- 
perior intelligence. They have generally been negroes, 
or persons much secluded in society ; remarkable, how- 
ever, for temperance and morality, and with scarcely an 
exception were Christians. 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. I29 

If this Strain shortens human life, it will not be ques- 
tioned that vice and immorality cut into the vital forces 
and functions with a twofold greater violence, and in 
the same ratio limit the period of life. The assertion, 
therefore, of David may be considered not only a his- 
toric but a philosophic truism : " Bloody and deceitful 
men shall not live out half their days." (Ps. 55 : 3). 
Upon this subject biography is none the less explicit 
and general, showing that the children of great intellects 
fall below the common level. There are exceptions, but 
this is the rule. If progress was the rule, then the chil- 
dren of each successive generation would be, as a whole, 
wiser, more moral, and physically more robust. 

The stability and perpetuity of inanimate nature de- 
pend ^upon the harmonious and peaceful operation of 
lier laws ; from which it may be argued that it equally 
depends upon the harmonious blending and operation of 
all the laws of human nature in order to secure perma- 
nent advance in each successive generation. Were such 
the fact, true progress might be claimed for man. When, 
however, we behold discord and weakness so fearfully 
prevalent, and every form of vice increasing, how can 
real progress be hoped for in the present world ? 

Besides, any view of human progress which leaves out 
the religious element is not only partial but radically de- 
fective ; and we may add that no theory of natural reli- 
gion, even the most refined heathenism — all of which are 
but corruptions of that revealed in the Holy Scriptures — 
can be expected to accomplish so great a work as the 
general elevation of mankind, when the original and un- 
corrupted religion has proved itself inadequate. But to 
elevate mankind is not its proposed work, and therefore 
it cannot be said to be a failure. The endowments and 
aspirations of humanity are so distinctive and universal 
5 



130 COSMOGONY. 

that if their elementary source is to be found in any 
propositions of religious theory, that religion must be 
adapted to insure man's highest elevation, mentally, 
morally, physically, socially, and civilly. This consti- 
tutes the highest form of civilization, and in the very 
nature of things demonstrates that man was made for 
that religion, and it for him ; and as Christianity per- 
fectly meets each of these demands, it is therefore the 
most fundamental principle in human progress. We do 
not mean a mere national, formal, ritualistic religion, but 
that which is individual, bringing the sympathies of the 
heart, the submission of the will and the intellectual 
faculties into harmony with themselves, with God, and 
His system of righteous government, regulating every 
act of life, and all founded upon faith in the fulfillment 
of His promises of future reward — namely, eternal life 
in His coming kingdom. 

That the Christian religion has accomplished this 
great work is attested by millions of intelligent human 
experiences. It stands, therefore, upon a better founda- 
tion than any other system of ethics, moral philosophy, 
or material science, all of which change : and while the 
deductions of natural religion are only available to the 
few who by long study master its nice problems, com- 
mencing by stifling their convictions of the existence of 
a personal God — the facts and demonstrations of Chris- 
tianity are such equally to the scientist, philosopher, and 
people. 

Mental Ivipression PJiysically Deteriorates. 

Another obstacle in the way of human progress which 
we may mention is the power of mental impression to 
degenerate offspring. Its power to mark and shape is 
such as to render all the singularities of human, feature 



CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION CONTRASTED. I3I 

transmissible, which fact is manifested in the birth of 
monstrosities ; from which it follows that the more ordi- 
nary peculiarities are also thus transmissible, such as the 
color of the hair, eyes, skin, curling of the hair, shape of 
the nose, lips, etc. These variations of physical organi- 
zation are so common among families and nations — which 
are only families on a larger scale — that it is one of the 
most important principles in the division of the human 
species into races. Children of the same family often 
differ as widely from their parents and each other as 
from other families and nationalities. These phenomena 
may be inherited from grandparents, when not possessed 
by the parents. The feature was fixed upon the off- 
spring directly by the mother, but was indirectly trace- 
able to some nervous or unlovely grandmother, either 
dead or living at the time. The mother's memory and 
fear of such deformity of her child had the effect to 
produce it, enlisting and concentrating the molding and 
fashioning powers through the nervous forces of the 
mind, which are known to affect the circulating fluids of 
the whole system. According to this law, if the monster 
have features resembling those of a lower animal, the 
mind of the mother at a certain stage of gestation be- 
came fixed upon the animal, either by fear, hatred, or 
love, and the baleful work was done. 

This is the philosophy of the increase in our day of 
dwarfs or midgets, as well as of their extreme littleness, 
and which must multiply by their public exhibition. 
Such features are liable to become a family inheritance, 
transmitted from generation to generation. If the de- 
formities are such as to derange the reproductive organ- 
ism, the subject will be infertile, and will run out in the 
first generation, except such as are influenced by the 
principle of mental impression above stated. 



132 COSMOGONY. 

Upon this principle it often happens that offspring of 
human mothers come into the world part monkey, part 
dog, part hog, indeed, part any animal that has im- 
pressed the mother, as mentioned above. A fact is here 
involved which reverses evolution — namely, that no mon- 
ster was ever born of a lower animal part human, or of 
a woman part angel ; the principle of mental impression 
therefore deteriorates instead of advancing the human 
species. We might also remind the evolutionists that 
monstrosities are the product of catastrophism and not 
of uniformitarianism. This fact proves two things : first, 
that when an extreme change takes place in the genera- 
tion of man it is sudden : the greatest may not occupy 
more time than a single year ; secondly, when it occurs 
it deteriorates instead of improves mankind. 

The Wisdom of the Creator in Limiting its Power. 

That the extreme monstrosities do not reproduce 
their kind is an exemplifiication of the wisdom of the 
Creator in thus checking the otherwise too rapid degen- 
eracy of the human species, which might baffle the pur- 
pose for which man was created, and which we have 
already shown. Mr. Darwin argues that monstrosities 
may slightly yet permanently transmit their peculiarities, 
and it is by a reversion of its action — which, as we have 
dem^onstrated, never works in that direction — that he 
obtains the only plausible grounds in favor of his theory. 
But his failure consists in not making the discrimination 
at which nature limits the transmission of deformities to 
those of the physical system which do not interfere with 
the vital and generative organs ; and to do this renders 
offspring even of a rudamentary character impossible. 



CHAPTER V. 

MATERIALISM EXPOSED BY THE LAWS OF MATTER AND 
MOTION. 

What is Materialism 2 

The question of materialism and its opposite, imma- 
terialism, so prominent and assuming at the present day, 
seems to us to have grown out of the ancient heathen 
philosophy which taught the viciousness of matter, sim- 
ply because it was matter. As a consequence, we find 
those terms generally employed to signify religious belief 
on the one hand and skepticism on the other. But we 
consider the questions here involved as purely of a 
philosophic and scientific character, relating to the exist- 
ence, conditions, and phenomena of things, or what may 
be called the methods of God in nature, and as such 
cannot conflict with any statement contained in the 
written revelation emanating from the same Being. 

As there is no medium between material and imma- 
terial things, or properly between something and no- 
thing, therefore something cannot become nothing, nor 
nothing something. Of course this argues equally the 
eternity of simple matter and the impossibility of its 
annihilation. 

Having mentioned annihilation, it may be proper here 
to quote what Dr. Bernet says, thus : " The doctrine 
was unknown to the Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins. The 
ancient philosophers denied annihilation, the first notions 
of which are said to have arisen from Christian the- 
133 



134 COSMOGONY. 

ology." That Mr. John Wesley did not entertain such 
a theological notion is evident from the following : "All 
matter indeed is changeable, and that into ten thousand 
forms ; but that it is changeable does in no wise imply 
that it is perishable. The substance may remain one 
and the same, though under innumerable different forms. 
It is very possible any portion of matter may be resolved 
into the atoms of which it was originally composed ; but 
what reason have we to believe that one of its atoms 
ever was or ever will be annihilated ? " (Wesley's Ser- 
mons, vol. ii, p. 14.) 

In reference to such a belief we may further remark 
that it is as creditable to ancient philosophy as to an- 
cient theology, that neither held such an unnatural opin- 
ion. The twin sister to this notion is that material 
things or matter itself was made out of nothing, and 
rests upon no better ground than that a Mr. Hutchinson 
said the original word create signified this ; in conse- 
quence of which idea this definition has found its way 
into our dictionaries ; but we shall show that it has no 
such signification as used in the Bible. 

Locality, motion, and organization belong exclusively 
to matter and its relations. As to locality, it is a fact 
that matter alone occupies space, or, what is the same 
thing, has a locality. Space itself is absolutely nothi?tg; 
for if it were a thing it would have limits, size, shape, 
and could therefore only occupy a part of space. Re- 
move every particle of matter from a square inch of 
space and you have a square inch of nothing ; and what 
is true of one inch is equally true of every inch. It is 
just as correct to speak of empty space as of an empty 
house — that it has nothing in *it, provided the house was 
a perfect vacuum. It is a fact that one modification of 
matter in its fluid state (and all solids become fluids and 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I35 

fluids solids) penetrates the cavities or pores of another, 
thus adding to the weight of the former ; yet one square 
inch of any form of matter, if it is perfectly solid, fills 
exactly one square inch of space, and under a given 
temperature and pressure does not increase or decrease 
in size. 

It is obvious that if by any process of art or nature 
this cube of matter were reducfed to immateriality it 
would cease to occupy space, leaving the cube of space 
from which it had been immaterialized or annihilated, 
which is the same thing, an inch of nothing. Thus we 
see that the doctrine of immateriality conveys the 
strongest possible conception of annihilation, and the 
conclusion is equally formidable against the supposed 
existence of purely immaterial things or beings occupy- 
ing any part of space, hundreds of millions of which 
might dwell in a single square inch of space and not a 
particle of it be filled. It is a fact that a square inch of 
tl^ subtlest or most ethereal gas of the atmosphere or 
even of electricity may displace a solid inch of gold ; 
but the two cannot occupy the same space at the same 
time. This law is called the '' impenetrability of mat- 
ter." 

An Objection of Mental Philosophy Removed. 

But it is said that thoughts, conceptions, imaginations, 
are things, and yet they occupy no space. This, how- 
ever, is mere sophistry, for these are only exercises of 
material mental organs. As well say the growing of a 
plant is a thing separate from the plant itself, the run- 
ning of water a separate thing from the water, or that 
the rolling of the earth is a separate existence from the 
earth itself, and occupies space. These exercises of the 
mental organs may be completely stopped by physical 



17,6 COSMOGONY. 

obstruction, pressure or disease of the brain, entirely 
suspending all rational exercise, rendering impossible the 
least intellectual acquirement, and of course preventing 
its commencement, if any of these existed in early child- 
hood and had continued. 

Upon this subject we quote Mr. Wesley again, who 
was a philosopher and a scientist as well as one of the 
best theologians of his day. Confounding as he does 
the soul, spirit, and intellectual powers, and how they 
may be hindered by the bodily organs, he says : " These 
very frequently hinder the soul in its operations ; and at 
best serve it very imperfectly ; yet the soul cannot dis- 
pense with its service, for an embodied spirit cannot 
form one thought but by the mediation of its bodily or- 
gans, for thinking is not, as many suppose, the act of a 
pure spirit, but the act of a spirit connected with a 
body and playing upon a set of material keys. It can- 
not possibly, therefore, make any better music than the 
nature and state of its instruments allow. Hence every 
disorder of the body, especially of the parts more im- 
mediately subservient to thinking, lay an almost insu- 
perable bar in the way of its thinking justly." (Wesley's 
Sermons, vol. ii, p. 34.) 

Upon the same subject we quote the following from 
the essays of the celebrated John Locke, " On the Hu- 
man Understanding " : " We have the ideas of matter 
and thinking ; but possibly shall never know whether 
any mere material being thinks or not. It being, in re- 
spect to our notions, not much more remote from our 
comprehension to conceive that God can, if he pleases, 
superadd to matter a faculty of thinking, than that he 
should superadd to it another substance with a faculty 
of thinking ; since we know not wherein thinking con- 
sists, nor to what sort of substance the Almighty has 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I37 

been pleased to give that power ; for I see no contradic- 
tion in it, that the first eternal, thinking Being should, if 
he pleased, give to certain systems of created, senseless 
matter, put together as he thinks fit, sense, perception, 
and thought." 

It is a fact that the immateriality of the soul was 
never advanced in Christian discussion until the days of 
Hobbes, in 1679. It seems very clear that Mr. Wesley 
did not believe in immaterial existences. Says he : 
" But it has been questioned by some whether there be 
any fire in hell, that is, any material fire. Nay, if there 
be any fire, it is unquestionably material ; for what is 
immaterial fire ? The same as immaterial water or earth; 
both the one and the other is absolute nonsense, a con- 
tradiction in terms. Either, therefore, we must affirm it 
to be material fire, or deny its existence." (Vol. ii, p. 34.) 

Motion is a relative property of matter, and therefore 
nothing but that which is composed of some modifica- 
tion of matter can move or be moved ; hence motion 
is not an abstraction or an idea simply, for we can bave 
no idea of the motion of immateriality, or even of its 
existence. It may be proper to call the space from 
which we have supposed all matter removed, immater- 
iality. The matter it contains may be changed from 
one locality to another, but the space remains eternally 
fixed, and this is only the condition of nothing. As the 
term motion expresses the simple fact of matter mov- 
ing, it follows that the theory which dispossesses a thing 
or being of any modification of matter renders that 
thing or being immovable, and shuts it out of universal 
space. Hence the doctrine of immateriality teaches 
nothing but non-existence, as it most perfectly annihi- 
lates every thing or being to which it is applied. This 
is equally the voice of philosophical science, of meta- 



138 COSMOGONY. 

physics, according to its ancient definition, and of the 
Bible. 

We come now to consider the proposition that organ- 
ization belongs to and can only be predicated of matter. 
In order to demonstrate this proposition it is only neces- 
sary to consider the opposite theory, which assumes 
that immaterial organs may not only exist, but that 
they possess the faculty of self-motion, as well as the 
power, by direct action of imparting motion to inanimate 
matter. But as these organs are of the same nature as 
immateriality itself, they have no location in space — and 
this is equivalent to non-existence — and therefore they 
cannot move or be moved, nor endow with the faculty 
of motion, nor communicate it to the smallest particle 
of matter. 

It is no more an axiom of nature that " from nothing 
nothing comes," than that nothing cannot move some- 
thing, nor something nothing ; yet these are calmly set 
aside by the absurd theory that all things were made out 
of nothing. 

Mental Organs formed of Matter. 

As the human mind is supposed to be immaterial, it 
follows that this fancied relation exists between it and 
the material, voluntary organs of the body. As imma- 
teriality cannot move itself, it is incapable of moving or 
obstructing, or in the least degree affecting any opera- 
tion of the organs of the human brain ; and if the human 
mind is pure immateriality it has no power or faculty of 
exercise^ which implies its motion or that of its organs — 
indeed expresses this — or by the mere fiat of will of giv- 
ing locomotion to the material human body. 

Numerous facts are recorded demonstrating the mate- 
rial organization of the human mind, including the in- 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I39 

tellectual powers. The cerebrum, or intellectual brain, 
has received injuries by which the cranium has been de- 
pressed, immediately suspending all rational thought. 
Sometimes fractured portions of the skull have been 
lifted from the brain by surgical operation, when in- 
stantly the subjects became conscious, and in some cases 
have been known to finish the sentence arrested by the 
accident, but yet had been perfectly unconscious of all 
events intervening between the injury and the remedy, 
though years had elapsed. Such facts demonstrate the 
operation of the organic mind, and that such operation 
is essential to thought or the acquisition of human knowl- 
edge. 

Another important fact in proof that the brain proper 
is the organized sensorium, the motions or exercise of 
which result in rational thought, is the phenomenon of 
sleep. Organic man is composed of two grand depart- 
ments, the voluntary and involuntary. The cerebrum is 
the source of the intellectual faculties and nerves of 
volition, and constitutes the intellectual department ; 
while the lesser, anterior brain, or cerebellum, is the 
source of the involuntary nerves, leading to all the vital 
organs, and constitutes the department of life. All of 
these are continually active, whether we wake or sleep. 
These commence operation when we begin to live — in 
fact constitute the life itself — carrying on all the func- 
tions of animal life and phenomena, so that the blood 
circulates, the heart beats, the liver secretes its bile, the 
lungs respire, and all the lesser organs continue their 
uninterrupted activities while life lasts, whether the mind 
is awake or sleeps, whether we will or not ; so that man 
cannot end his life by voluntarily ceasing to breathe. 
He may hold his breath until he faints ; but now, be- 
coming unconscious, the will, the supreme governor of 



140 COSMOGONY. 

the voluntary instruments, relaxes its grasp, and the in- 
voluntary faculties restore him to consciousness. 

Involuntajy Sleep — Death. 

The involuntary department obtains all the rest de- 
manded because of the reduced consumption of the vital 
force by the slower motion of the vital organs, while the 
voluntary department, the intellectual, has its nightly 
sleep ; but when the involuntary department goes to 
sleep, that sleep is death to both — of course reducing all 
to a state of unconsciousness until the resurrection or 
re-creation of the organic structure, which is the revealed 
design of man's Maker. 

Here two principal physiological facts are to be ob- 
served : first, that the living, involuntary department 
never for a moment sleeps, except in death ; second, 
that by the exhaustion of the sources of motion — in- 
haled from the air and assimilated by the vital organs 
from the food taken into the stomach — by continued 
mental activity, the mental, thinking department is also 
compelled to sleep, in which condition, as a consequence, 
all thought and consciousness are at an end. It is true 
that in dreams irrational thoughts occur, but this is 
owing to the fact that all the mental organs are not then 
in perfect sleep. Those which have been most excited 
or exercised during the day are the last to sleep at night ; 
by this strain the brain-organs and the nerves leading 
from them have become most expanded, and are there- 
fore the last to contract and sleep ; and as rational 
thought requires the perfect wakefulness of all the men- 
tal organs, dreams are but the confused vagaries of 
minds partly dead, as the whole mind is dead while it 
is in a state of sound sleep. 

For example, a man has been engaged during the 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I4I 

day in endeavoring to collect money, and has been un- 
successful. He lies down at night to sleep ; but that 
part of the brain more immediately connected with such 
an enterprise, as acquisitiveness and secretiveness, hav- 
ing been most active is the most expanded, and there- 
fore the last to contract and sleep at night. 

Hence the man dreams, and his dreams are about 
money, but of course are devoid of sense, and these 
phrenological and physiological facts show why. Solo- 
mon presents this philosophy thus : " Dreams cometh 
from a press of business." It will be observed that it is 
not the living, unthinking department that sleeps thus 
nightly, but the mental, intellectual, thinking powers ; 
and every time sleep is repeated the mind becomes as 
profoundly unconscious of all passing events as though 
the man was dead. It must also be remembered that it 
is the unthinking, vital powers which thus compel the 
mental faculties to cease their operation. Now, no mat- 
ter what are the speculations of any class of men in 
regard to these phenomena, daily observation and their 
own daily experienced emonstrate such to be its phi- 
losophy. 

These facts give us the solution of the question 
so often propounded. What is life ? and show that it is 
not any one thing — not the breath, or spirit, or soul, or 
mind, or intellect, or even the lungs, heart, or stomach — 
but all of these combined in a single body. Life, there- 
fore, is in the combination^ and results from the organiza- 
tion. The demonstration is, that had a single vital or- 
gan been left out — say the lungs — life would have been 
impossible, because breathing could not take place. We 
see also that as human intelligence results from thinking, 
and thinking from living, therefore had the first man, 
Adam, not lived he could never have acquired a thought, 
hence he would have been as though he had not been. 



142 COSMOGONY. 

These physiological facts are also in the most perfect 
accord with the Mosaic statements in relation to the 
creation of the first man. He was organized perfectly, 
and therefore susceptible of living, and his Maker then 
'' breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man 
became a living soul." The breath was not the life, but 
was the breath of life ; it was the first breath, and set 
the vital machinery in motion ; the second and every 
subsequent breath were inhaled by the man, " the living 
soul " himself. The breath was one of the vital princi- 
ples, the lungs were another, and neither could have 
given life without the other : for man could not live 
if he had not breathed, neither could he have breathed 
without lungs. Therefore, no one or more of the vital 
organs or principles, all of which are essential to life, 
was the life, the living soul, but all combined made the 
man such. 

To Understand Nattcre yoiL miLst Understand the Bible. 

Whoever would understand the teachings of nature in 
the highest degree must at least understand the leading 
truths of the Bible. By leading truths we do not mean 
what any man may call such, adopting and reporting 
them upon second-hand authority ; but such as one may 
find by searching the Scriptures and mastering them for 
himself. iV man might just as well adopt and proclaim what 
another declares to be the teachings of nature, without 
comprehending a single one of her principles, or master- 
ing a scientific problem. Such a theologian or scientist 
should be ruled out of the discussion of all the questions 
herein involved, leaving it to be prosecuted by his better 
qualified master. We insist that he who justifiably ar- 
rays any fact or truth of nature against any fact or truth 
of revelation contained in the Bible must have qualified 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I43 

himself for the task, either by mastering the reasons, and 
thus obtaining the evidences from both these sources of 
knowledge, which led others to the conclusions he 
adopts, or of acquiring them by independent investi- 
gation. 

To hold the Bible responsible for all the erroneous 
and contradictory sentiments which have been attributed 
to it is as absurd as it would be to hold a modern sci- 
entist or philosopher responsible for the opinions of 
Plato, who, in his attempt to account for the physical de- 
rangement of the world, attributed it to the inherent 
vicious and implacable nature of senseless matter. So 
in relation to the doctrine of matter, its nature and dura- 
tion, revealed alike in nature and the Bible : when both 
are understood, and are left to interpret themselves and 
each other, they are found to be in the m.ost perfect har- 
mony. 

A study of matter puts a limit to scientific research and 
human capacity, and within its circle imposes on him 
who makes use of any of its facts or phenomena to 
oppose the statements or any teaching of the Bible, the 
necessity of having a perfect comprehension of such 
facts and the philosophy of their existence and a deter- 
mination of the exact time required for coming into 
existence ; which implies a knowledge of all the 
dynamics and possible agencies that may have been 
present and active in the operation. If is only by such 
qualification that it can be determined whether there 
was a being possessed of mind interested and engaged 
in the work, whether he possessed the requisite power to 
perform it, and whether he was abstract and independent 
or confounded with the work : did he possess the ability 
to bring into existence a stratum of granite a mile in 
thickness in a single hour, which if formed by the slow 



144 COSMOGONY. 

process of nature [if it is thus formed at all ?] would 
consume a hundred thousand years, but which would in 
both cases bear the same marks of age r 

Skeptical Materialisjn Defined. 

The grounds of the controversy between materialism, 
in the skeptical sense of this word, and revealed religion 
originated in the supposition that in some of the modifi- 
cations of matter are found or to be found all the powers 
and facilities required to have formed the organic and 
inorganic world as it is, and, of course, without the in- 
tervention of an intelligent being, who may or may not 
exist, but that nature reveals no necessary work for him 
to do. Hence the term " materialists " properly desig- 
nates skeptics ; but to apply it to Christians for believing 
that Jesus Christ was a material being, and that he is 
their God and the Creator of all things, and that there is 
to be a resurrection of the same material being that now 
lives and dies, is to assume the ridiculous attitude of de- 
nouncing as skeptics all the apostles and all the Bible 
Christians of the world. Christians believe in and 
worship a personal, living God who made all things ; 
while skeptics hold that there is no such being, and that 
all things came into existence of themselves by evolu- 
tion ; or that they never came into existence, and yet 
they exist ! The conclusions we have now reached in 
relation to matter and its opposite, immaterialism, may 
be summed up thus : 

Materiality has shape, immateriality has none. Materi- 
ality has weight, immateriality weighs nothing. Material- 
ity has tangibility, can be felt, immateriality cannot be 
felt. Materiality is susceptible of motion, immateriality 
is not. Matter occupies space, immateriality does not. 
Matter may be organized, immateriality cannot be or- 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I45 

ganized. Matter cannot become immateriality, nor vice 
versa : otherwise, the first proposition would involve the 
absurdity of annihilation, and the second the equal ab- 
surdity that matter can be made out of no matter — in 
other words, that nothing can become something, and 
something become nothing. If matter exists, it must 
always have existed, and cannot cease to exist. Imma- 
teriality does not exist, and never did exist ; as well sup- 
pose the existence of non-existence. Hence we have 
the self-evident statement, ''''From nothing nothing comes.'* 
Life and intelligence are the result of organic being. 
An immaterial mind cannot move or have exercise, 
which implies motion, and therefore it cannot create 
material things or govern them. As it cannot move 
itself, of course it cannot cause the motion of other 
things, which an act of creation or government implies. 
If God is immateriality. He has no weight, form, size, 
organs, or intelligence ; He therefore has no power to 
move either himself or a particle of matter. He is inor- 
ganic, and fills no space. This immaterial fantasm, 
called God, can be found nowhere in the universe, and 
must be left just where He is found and what He thus 
is — nowhere and nothing. 

The Doctrine of Immateriality — Annihilation. 

With regard to the application of this word to de- 
scribe the nature of the Deity — whose greatness is as in- 
finitely ai)ove man's comprehension as the creation of 
the world is above his power of execution — instead of its 
being a sign of an idea, was invented by a Mr. Hutchinson, 
as Mr. John Wesley says, and as we repeat, to hide his 
ignorance and cover up his arrogance in a proud attempt 
to comprehend the nature of the being who made him, 
to tell us of what kind of stuff he was composed, so 



146 COSMOGONY. 

closely had he analyzed him ; which is as foolish as 
would be an attempt on the part of a thing of man's 
make to explain to his fellow- things what kind of mate- 
rial man, its maker, was composed of, or to declare that 
a being great enough to make it could not be a material 
being at all. 

Multitudes have adopted this word in its application 
to God, without for a moment stopping to examine its 
inherent absurdity. Those who assume to be thus wise 
— by the wisdom of the world to find out God, to com- 
prehend the incomprehensible — naturally seek to bring 
analogies and plausibilities to their assistance, and they 
reason thus : All matter is made out of nothing : if God 
is matter, He must have been made or have made Him- 
self, and that too out of nothing. He is therefore im- 
materiality. Matter is destructible ; if God is matter 
He is destructible ; and therefore also all the immortal, 
resurrected saints, being the same 7?iaterial organisms 
which died, are not immortal, but destructible ; but as 
God is eternal He must be immaterial. A material being 
must have a location in space, or his dimensions must be 
as boundless as space, which ideas being incompatible. 
He must be immateriality, which has no locality. As 
nothing but matter can be organic, and as God is not 
matter, he cannot be an organized being. 

As immateriality could never have come into exist- 
ence, or cease to exist, and as God is immateriality. He 
is therefore indestructible and eternal. Now, what is 
there in this apparent profound reasoning ? Simply 
that, having reduced the being of God to absolute nothings 
He could no more have come into existence or cease to 
exist than can nothing ; therefore he is eternal, but an 
eternal nothing. 

If it be sought to avoid this conclusion by the declara- 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. 147 

tlon that God is an immaterial substance^ it in no wise re- 
lieves the argument of its philosophic absurdities, unless 
this substance is defined to be something which occupies 
space ; and this admission invests it with all the essen- 
tial qualities of matter, and therefore virtually overturns 
the whole doctrine of immaterial existences. If the doc- 
trine of the existence of a personal organic God is be- 
yond the grasp of created mind, does not the conception 
of an immaterial God become still more impossible, by 
reducing or elevating him into a kind of being which, by 
all the analogies of nature and known existences, is not 
only incomprehensible, but absolutely repugnant and 
contradictory to reason, still further from the grasp of 
the human mind to conceive ? 

Substantial Nature of God Proved by His Attributes, 

It is claimed that even this God has attributes, some 
of which are, omniscience (all-seeing), omnipresence (all- 
knowing), and omnipotence (all-powerful). With some, 
these inhere and belong to the Divine Being, and with 
others they constitute the Godhead. If this view is cor- 
rect, then it seems to us we need no further argument, 
nor to add a word to prove God to be an organized 
being, and as such He must have a location somewhere 
in space ; for it is impossible to disassociate a combina- 
tion of attributes and personal organization. As 
omnipotence, manifested in the government of the 
inanimate universe, is material power, it must be a ma- 
terial attribute, as an immaterial being cannot have a 
material attribute, which is a part of himself ; therefore 
God is not immateriality. 

As to the attributes of God and their description, we 
prefer taking the written, revealed language describing 
it. Hence we read : " Whither shall I flee from thy 



148 COSMOGONY, 

presence?" (Ps. 139 : 7.) "To him the darkness 
shineth as the light, darkness hideth not from thee." 
" Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God 
afar off ? " (Jer. 23 : 23.) " Can any hide himself in 
secret places that I shall not see him ? saith the Lord. 
Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jer, 23 : 24.) 
" He that made the ear, shall he not hear ; he that made 
the eye, shall he not see ? " 

The idea that God must be in close contact with every 
object He sees is infinitely more preposterous than that 
a man should be thus in contact. The sun is in man's 
presence, because he sees it, just as it is in the presence 
of God. A man sees everything he has made, and has 
a perfect knowledge of its capability and uses, by the 
eye of his mind, though they may all be in another con- 
tinent at the time. So God may as really occupy a lo- 
cation in space not larger than that filled by a man, and 
yet see and have a perfect knowledge of everything he 
has made, or that exists. 

If a man's mind is susceptible of having imprinted 
on it every object which he has ever seen, or with which 
he has been interested, all of which are in his presence, 
may not all the works of God be also thus imprinted, 
and be also in His presence, and He Himself be " far 
above all heavens ? " " Known unto God are all His 
works from the beginning of the world." (Acts. 15 : 18.) 

In reference to His power we read : " The Lord God 
Omnipotent reigneth." Omnipotence therefore is not 
an abstract attribute of the God of nature and the Bible, 
but is so allied with his Being that He Himself is omni- 
potent, 

Jesus Christ is a Material Being, but the Christian's God. 
To those who believe in Christianity and yet entertain 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. 1 49 

such heathen views of God, we propose to present a few 
arguments for their reflection. First, the world is as 
ignorant of the nature of God as the above conclusions 
show. " The world by wisdom knew not God : for it 
is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and 
will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." 
[Those who say. Well, if Jesus is Lord, we should be 
careful not to confess it, lest the heathen philosophers 
laugh us to scorn for having a material God.] Where 
is the wise ? where is the scribe ? where is the disputer 
of this world ? For after that in the wisdom of God 
the world by wisdom knew not God ; it pleased God by 
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe : 
for the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after 
wisdom ; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews 
a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. 
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, 
Christy the power of God and the wisdom of God. [The 
called are those who accept Jesus Christ as the embodi- 
ment of the wisdom and power of God, and therefore 
God Himself^ Because the foolishness of God is wiser 
than men ; and the weakness of God is stronger than 
men : for ye see your calling, brethren, how that not 
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not 
many noble, are called. [Not many of those whose 
wisdom led them to adopt the heathen philosophy of 
the impersonal, immaterial God of nature as taught by 
Pantheistic mythology and modern evolution,] But 
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to con- 
found the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things 
of the world to confound the things which are mighty, 
and the base things of the world, and the things which . 
are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which 
are not, to bring to naught things that are : that no flesh 



150 COSMOGONY. 

should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in 
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, wisdom, and 
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption : as it 
is written. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 
(i Cor. I : 19-31.) 

The Scriptures teach, clearly, unequivocally, and as 
positively as language can, the truth that the One living 
and eternal God prepared a human body for Himself, 
and was about thirty-three years in the work, and con- 
summated it when he took it from the tomb of Joseph ; 
that from that event He was God in the form of man, 
and in this form he was the Son of God, and which 
transaction made God " Father^'' as this was the only be- 
gotten Son, hence making God Father and Son^ both in 
o?te person. God was Father in purpose, in decree, and 
in prediction before this, even from the foundation of 
the world, and Christ was a " lamb slain from the foun- 
dation of the world ; " but neither of these were facts 
until this investment took place, of which we have the 
history recorded by the evangelists and writers of the 
Epistles. 

We do not propose to answer the apparent objections 
to this position, as it would require too much space for 
this book ; besides we have done this in another work, 
at least to our own satisfaction. Nor can we give more 
than a small number of the Scripture statements and 
passages which admit of no other inference. To do 
this fully it would be necessary to consider the import of 
all the names God has used to reveal Himself in the 
Scriptures ; likewise to show that Jesus Christ possessed 
and manifested all the wisdom and all the power which 
the organic and inorganic world exhibits, and that, too, 
while He was on earth, and during the time God was in 
and with Him, making the preparation of the human 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I5I 

body for Himself, and consequently in his lowest and 
weakest form. This also we have set forth in another 
work. 

Scripture Argument Proving the Lord Jesus the Only God. 

The question is, Is this Son of God, this Jesus, God 
Himself ? If so, he must be the object of universal wor- 
ship. 

In order to appreciate the Scripture argument upon 
this subject, it must be understood that God li^s pur- 
posed, and fully revealed that purpose, to make a new 
world out of the dissolved elements of this, called '' the 
world to come," the new heaven and new earth, the pre- 
historic record of which is summed up in the last two 
chapters of Revelation ; that this is to be His eternal 
kingdom, in which He and His immortal saints, having like 
Him been raised from the dead, shall reign forever — this 
is the " world without end " — that this reign is signified by 
His name Lord, meaning one who reigns ; that Jesus, the 
La77ib, the weakest, meekest, lowliest name of God, by 
the immanualization of himself, is this Almighty Lord to 
reign. We may remark that it was not the body which 
was Jesus, or Lord, or the Son of God ; but God having 
himself incarnated, invested with it and in it — just as the 
material body of man is his own — became Jesus, Christ, 
the Son of God, the Lord to reign ; and this form of 
God he is to exalt to be the Lord God Omnipotent, the 
Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb. 

In proof of these statements we quote the following 
words of Scripture, which to us is authority, and the only 
authority we admit upon religious questions : 

" Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ 
Jesus : who, being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God : but made himself of no 



152 COSMOGONY. 

reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, 
and was made in the likeness of men : and being found 
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became 
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Where- 
fore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a 
name which is above every name : that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, of things in heaven [the angels] 
of things in earth [all living men], and things under the 
earth [the dead in their graves, under the surface of the 
earth when resurrected] ; and that every tongue should 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father." (Phil. 2 : 4-1 1). Here the fact is stated, 
that the time is coming when all intelligent creatures 
will confess that Jesus is Lord ; and as the Father and 
Son are one, and as God has become Father and Son 
by taking the human form, therefore to glorify one is to 
glorify the other. 

*' God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners 
spake in time past unto the fathers, by the prophets, 
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom 
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he 
made the worlds ; who being the brightness of his [God's 
glory], and the express image of his person [God is a 
person^ not two persons, and the Son is his image, and 
express image], and upholding all things by the word of 
his power [the power of the Son], when he had by him- 
self purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the 
majesty on high : being made so much better than the 
angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excel- 
lent name than they : for unto which of the angels said 
he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I be- 
gotten thee ? and again, I will be to him a Father, and 
he shall be to me a Son ? And again, when he bringeth 
in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I53 

all the angels of God worship hwi, and unto the Son he 
saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever ; a scepter 
of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom." (Heb. 
I : 1-8.) Here the only-begotten son is declared to be 
God, and to hold the scepter of eternal reign in his 
kingdom, and to be worshiped by all the angels. Upon 
what other principle can this be true or lawful, and not 
idolatry, but that God himself is invested with this human 
form ? 

" And thou shalt worship no other God : for the Lord, 
w^hose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Ex. 34 : 14.) 

Here we see that it is so impossible for God to per- 
mit any but the Lord to be worshiped that he calls his 
very name " Jealous'' " The Lord of hosts is his name. 
For my name's sake, for mine own name's sake, will I 
do it, and I will not give my glory to another." (Isa. 
48 : 2, 9, 11). If Jesus is another person than God, the 
Lord, He will not give him his glory. " But I had pity 
for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had pro- 
faned among the heathen, therefore, thus saith the Lord : 
I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for 
mine holy name's sake, and I will sanctify vny great name, 
and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the 
Lord God." ( Ez. 2i^ : 21-23.) Here the Lord God de- 
dares his great name to be Lord, and " every tongue is 
to confess that Jesus is Lord^' and this name is to be 
'' exalted above every name ; " God has pity upon this, 
his great name, upon himself, in the form of man, suffer- 
ing the death of the cross for man, taking the dead body 
again triumphantly from the grave. " The Lord is risen 
indeed, and become the first fruits of them that slept." 
(i Cor. 15.) Thus, the Lord God is Lord, and Jesus is 
Lord. "" There is one Lord, one faith, one God, one 
Father." (Eph. 4 : 5, 6.] Therefore, also, is Jesus 



154 COSMOGONY 

God. " Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he 
saith, Sacrifices and offering thou wouldst not, but a 
body hast thou prepared me." (Heb. lo : 5) 

Christ is Worthy of all Honor. 

As we have in another work (see " Philosophy of God 
and the World ") argued at length and exhaustively the 
question of the Godhead of Jesus Christ, we need not 
pursue it further here ; and so far as ourselves are con- 
cerned we may say that we esteem it the highest possible 
honor to be permitted to have part in the worship of 
this centralized, this profundity, " God." We ask no 
share in the work of the self-complacent, bearing the 
Christian name, of disintegrating the Godhead, and 
then passing judgment on the fragments, saying which 
is greatest and which is least. Though the revelation of 
this " Wonderfid,'' as he is designated in inspired pre- 
diction, is utterly beyond human comprehension (not in- 
congruous to it), still the evidence of his nature and ex- 
istence is as conclusive and overwhelming as that upon 
which the truth of the Sacred Scriptures themselves rest. 
So also there are marvelous phenomena connected with 
our own origin and existence, yet we do exist, and 
began to exist. Is it anything but infatuation to reject 
the idea that Jesus Christ is the embodied Deity because 
we cannot comprehend the manner of that embodiment ? 
He may be allowed to make material bodies for men 
and angels, but not for Himself. If such strange speci- 
mens of mentality are consistent with themselves, we 
doubt whether they believe anything ; for if they do not 
unless they can comprehend it, or the manner of its 
existence, they certainly do not believe that they them- 
selves exist. 

Though personal revelation establishes the existence 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. 155 

of just such a god as nature and its design require, yet 
He is rejected by the evolutionists, as the grossest ma- 
terialists, and as Professor Tyndall, one of the ablest 
advocates of their theories, declare, he- sees in the sim- 
plest matter the origin and potency of all things the life 
of the world manifests, we must meet them upon their 
own line of argument ; for it would be certainly more 
consistent were we to argue that there once existed a 
creature like man, only so much superior as to have 
been the maker of the world with its inhabitants, than 
that these should have originated in a being of less 
capacity than man. 

If a Man Evolved in Time^ why not God in Eternity ? 

As it is the evolutionists who more than any other 
class of skeptics ignore the existence of a personal God 
as having or having had any relation to the existence or 
government of the world, we must consider their atti- 
tude more inconsistent than that of other skeptics, from 
the fact that they trace the descent of the greatest and 
most perfect organizations from the simplest conceivable 
beginnings. If, for example, man with all his wonder- 
ful powers and susceptibilities, physically, morally, and 
mentally, and even as a religious being, has through 
countless ages evolved from the simple movement of 
intelligent atoms, why may not a being have evolved 
from the vast machinery of all the universes and systems 
of worlds and stellar centers, in the incomputable eter- 
nities of the past, possessing all the knowledge and 
power which this little insignificant plaint (as it is called) 
manifests, so that he might easily have been its creator? 
And further, as man has the supreme dominion over the 
organic things from which he evolved, laying the vege- 
table and animal kingdoms under contribution to minis- 



156 COSMOGONY. 

ter to his wants and will, inflicting pains and penalties 
for every act of insubordination, resulting either in sub- 
jection or destruction, why may not this great Supreme, 
holding control of all the organic machinery from which 
He Himself evolved — why may not He lay all species, 
races, and individuals under contribution to minister to 
his pleasures, purposes, and will, and inflict pains and 
penalties for every act of disobedience, whether of a 
mental, moral, or physical character, and finally result- 
ing also in submission or extermination ? 

Further still, if this short-lived world, even . giving it 
the longest period claimed for its existence, has evolved 
such a being as man, capable of making, and perpetually 
inclined not only to make things, but those of the most 
wonderful construction, such as the electric telegraph 
and locomotive engine, to minister to his interests and 
wants, why may not the being evolved from all the 
systems of worlds during the eternities of the past, be 
also, like him, a material organization, and, choosing 
himself as the model, have made, directly by his own 
hand, the great Omniform, or Primordial, from which 
the earth, the solar system, and man himself have come 
into existence ? 

If evolution be a principle of nature, why should its 
operations be circumscribed within the chronological 
and geographical limits of this little world ? What rea- 
son can be assigned why such a being should not have 
come thus into existence, and the world have been his 
direct workmanship, as that man should thus have 
evolved, possessing to some considerable extent the 
power to subdue the elements by mechanical and chem- 
ical means, in order to subserve his purposes ? Indeed, 
we do not see why it should be a greater tax on the im- 
agination to suppose a succession of gods, with all the 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I57 

knowledge and power this world manifests, to have 
evolved from the universes of all nature and the dura- 
tion of all past eternities, than to suppose that a succes- 
sion of mankind, as the evolutionists claim, have evolved 
from and upon this little planet, of an ephemeral exist- 
ence compared with the vast ages through which the 
evolution machine has been running ; for if it com- 
menced, that would have been a " catastrophe," the pos- 
sibility of which the system does not admit. Any one of 
such gods might have laid the omnific golden egg, from 
which Time hatched the world. 

This idea solves the hard problem, and gives evolution 
its starting point, so far as this world is concerned, but 
still it is one of creation. 

If we have the proper conception that all power is 
mental, and compare that manifested by the man who 
created the steamship which plows the ocean, propelled 
by an engine of five thousand horse power, with that of 
which the first living plant-cell was capable, and from 
which rrian has evolved, and which cell had no life to 
begin with, and also that all worlds, during all past time, 
are likewise subjects of evolution, then why may they 
not have commenced also without antecedent life and 
from the simplest form of matter — plasma, monera, any- 
thing — and have evolved a being as personal as man, 
looking like him, and abundantly capable of being the 
creator of this our little world, as it is estimated by these 
same so-called scientists. We repeat, if evolution is true 
at all, and is capable of producing intelligent beings, and 
man in so short a fragment of eternity as that of the few 
years the world is said to have existed, why limit it to the 
development of man ? Here, then, according to evolu- 
tion, we have a personal God — the Creator of the world 
and man. 



153 COSMOGONY. 

Should any of these, His works, question the existence 
of this cause, and ask who designed the designer, we an- 
swer, " Nature," and to be a little more particular, and 
hence a little more absurd, we may say, " Nature " had 
no life herself, but she gave life to all the living inhabi- 
tants of the world, beginning by small degrees and 
working upward. So, also, if an evolutionist asks who 
designed the designer, we answer, a living, personal God. 
If pressed further with the question, "Whence came 
He ? " we answer. He evolved away back in duration 
from lifeless matter, as evolution can do anything, only 
give her time enough ; and for the accomplishment of 
this work of god-making we lavishly bestow ^upon her 
boundless duration : surely this is long enough. 

Here is a field in which Professor Tyndall may revel 
with his backward vision in search of his godless en- 
gineer to get up steam to start his first primordial into 
being from no primordial with such plausible grounds 
as Darwin gives him for confining his researches to our 
little globe ; and if one finds, as the result of his petty 
evolution, man, with faculties and endowments enabling 
him to originate and construct the most wonderful ma- 
chines, may not the other find, evolved from the mater- 
ial movements of an eternal succession of universes, a 
being of capacities and powers equal to the creation of 
this one little mundane sphere ? 



Scripture Definition of the ivord Cr 

It is a well-known fact in the history of science and 
philosophy that new words are coined to describe newly 
discovered facts and ideas ; from which it follows that 
if the facts are only supposed facts, and the ideas false, 
that such words convey no intelligent meaning. Such 
is the modern definition of the word '' create." Some 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. I59 

one conceived the notion that " God made all things out 
of nothing," and claimed, therefore, that the word cre- 
ate had this meaning ; but though human authors em- 
ploy it in this sense, the Scriptures use it simply to 
express the fact that God made one thing or substance 
out of another previously existing ; and so far as the 
teachings of this book are concerned, the matter out of 
M'hich all things were made might have been eternal. As 
the words made^ fojnn^ and create are used interchange- 
ably, descriptive of the work of bringing the heaven 
and the earth into existence, it follows that they have 
the same meaning. 

The account of creation begins with the mention of 
matter existing in a great, dark, chaotic deep, devoid of 
any of the forms it was made to assume during the prog- 
ress of the w^ork. The phrase, " In the beginning God 
created the heaven and the earth," is a general expres- 
sion covering the whole subsequent work, while the par- 
ticular work done on each of the six days is afterward 
described : '* For in six days God made the heaven and 
the earth, and all things that in them is." As this is the 
same work, and the whole of it, covered by the expres- 
sion, "the beginning," it can signify no longer time; 
and to make these days any other than days of twenty- 
four hours each is to " handle the word of God deceit- 
fully." 

If there were no other evidence than the fact that the 
seventh of these days was the twenty-four-hour Sabbath 
on which God rested from His work of creation, and 
afterward made it a Sabbath for the rest of man and 
beast, it would be sufficient to establish our position ; 
showing the absurdity of the rule of interpretation 
which makes six of these days indefinite periods and the 
other a definite one. That the words create^ made^ and 



l6o COSMOGONY. 

formed are used as we have indicated, will appear by the 
following quotations : " In the beginning God created 
the heaven and the earth." (Gen. i : i.) " And God 
created great whales." (Ver. 25.) " And God made 
every beast of the field after His kind." (Ver. 27.) " So 
God created man in His own image .... in the image 
of God created He him .... male and female created 
He them." (Chap. 2.) "And on the seventh day God 
ended His work which He had made .... and God 
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that 
in it He had rested from all His works which God cre- 
ated and made .... in the day that the Lord God made 
the earth and the heavens." 

In this last passage it will be observed that the word 
day means the same as that of beginning, also covering 
the whole work, and is a recapitulation. 

The following passages show that the words " ;;2<2^^, 
formed^ and create do not mean to make things out of 
nothing : 

" And of the rib, which the Lord God had taken from 
man, made He a woman." She was not therefore made 
out of nothing. " And the Lord God formed man of 
the dust of the ground'' And not out of nothing. 

" And out of the ground the Lord God formed every 
beast of the field and every fowl of the air." Not out 
of nothing. " For I have created him [man] for my 
glory. I have formed him ; yea, I have made him." 
(Isa. 34 : 7.) 

" This is the generation of Adam, in the day that God 
created him, in the likeness of God made He him." 
(Gen I : 31.) "And God saw everything that He had 
made^ and behold it was very good, and the evening and 
the morning were the sixth day." "And He that sat 
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. l6l 

(Rev. 21. 5.) This is the "new heaven and the new 
earth," which, by turning to the chapter, will be seen is 
to be done after the conflagration of the present heaven 
and earth, which reduces it to a second chaos. In pre- 
dicting this Jeremiah says : " I beheld the earth and 
the heavens and they had no light, and lo, they were 
without form and void." (4 : 23.) The creation of the 
new heaven and earth, or the re-creation of the present 
world, is to take place in accordance with the promise 
of God to Isaiah (65 : 17) : "For behold, I create new 
heavens and a new earth." 

These are to be created out of the dissolved elements 
of the present world, and not out of nothing. " For in 
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, 
and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day ; 
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hal- 
lowed it." (Gen. 31:17.) " It is a sign between me and 
the children of Israel for ever : for in six days the Lord 
made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He 
rested, and was refreshed." 

What was the Nature of the Original Matter 1 

We come now to consider what was the nature of the 
original matter out of which all things were made, and 
we agree with Professor Huxley, that it was homogeneous^ 
which means of the same kind or nature. Its particles 
therefore had no chemical or electrical variety or pecu- 
liarity, and hence had no faculty, function, or power to 
be in the least degree affected by each other, which is 
essential to molecular or atomic motion, which leads us 
to the conclusion that were the universe filled with such 
matter, not a particle of it would ever move ; and as the 
simplest formation is two particles adhering together, 
this implies that they have chemical or electrical affinity, 
and are not homogeneous. 



l62 COSMOGONY. 

If, therefore, the original matter was hotnogeneous, then 
the motion of its particles was and is impossible ; and as 
such motion was essential to the very simplest as well as 
the grandest combination, not one of these could ever 
have existed. If, however, the evolutionists, seeing this 
fatal result to their hypothesis, should change their 
grounds and deny that the original matter was homo- 
geneous, then they must take the only other horn of the 
dilemma, that its particles were intelligently endowed 
with a vast variety of chemical and electrical peculiari- 
ties. We say intelligently, from the fact that they seek 
each other according to these endowments or laws, and 
by combining formations result. As each of these forma- 
tions answers a certain purpose, and as a purpose can 
only be predicated of mind, therefore the endowment 
came from an intelligent Being, and was an act of crea- 
tion. Instead, therefore, of the original matter out of 
which the world came having been, as is variously 
claimed, in a fiery, icy, tumultuous, dashing condition, 
every atom of it had lain perfectly motionless, and with- 
out intellectual interference would have so remained. 

Thus it is not only proved but demonstrated that in 
such a universe of matter evolution could have had no 
starting point. 

The Atomic Theory Exposed. 

This homogeneous matter, God, by His spirit, agency, 
or power, which was material — for it came in contact 
with and moved matter, which immateriality cannot do — 
collected from space and condensed into that con- 
sistency Moses called "the great deep." This was an 
act prior to the creation of the world. Atoms may be 
divided by mechanical operation, chemical dissolution, 
or theoretically by mathematical calculation, adijifinitum; 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. 163 

and yet each piece is as really matter as though it 
weighed a ton. Indeed, we have no more approximated 
the conception of a particle which may not continue to 
be theoretically divided than we may approximate the 
comprehension of eternity, infinity, or the bounds of 
space. Nor have we disposed of one of the essential 
conditions of such particles of matter. The mathe- 
matical principle also shows the error of the atomic the- 
ory, which fixes the ultimate size of atoms. 

Another fact in relation to atoms is, that they are im- 
ponderable only when in this high state of sublimation, 
because no art of man is able to collect them in suffi- 
cient quantity to manifest specific gravity, and to detect 
which the scale must be placed above that area where 
they are in equilibrium. The fact is, the smallest atom 
as much occupies an area of space equal to its dimen- 
sions as the loftiest mountain or even the globe itself 
does. From these facts we conclude that the proper 
application of the term nature, when employed to de- 
scribe the motions or phenomena of material substances, 
as the movements, order, or plan of nature, is limited by 
true science to created existences. To call the matter 
out of which the world was made, nature, while it was 
the making that gave nature her birth, is as absurd as to 
call the material out of which a house is built the house 
itself. 

As absolute inertia is the law of simple or unendowed 
matter, and as there is no such matter within the cir- 
cumference of the solar system, every particle of which 
is now susceptible of motion by its inherent constitu- 
tion, of chemical affinity or electrical polarity, therefore, 
there is no uncreated matter within this area : the earth 
itself flies rapidly through space. The decompositions 
and formations of all material bodies show that there is 



164 COSMOGONY. 

no particle of matter which has not the power to affect 
and therefore move some other particle. Hence there 
is none connected with our world absolutely inert. 

Changes of Matter by the Mind of God. 

We may state this argument thus : first, matter existed 
without the power of motion ; secondly, it now moves ; 
thirdly, its motions are according to fixed laws ; fourthly, 
these laws are inherent, constitutional endowment ; 
fifthly, the motions accomplish certain uniform fixed 
ends ; sixthly, these motions and ends are the works of 
nature ; seventhly, the endowment was involution, the 
work of the Creator, the working out or unfolding of 
which is evolution ; therefore evolution is the effect and 
involution the cause ; but as it is only a secondary cause 
it is therefore an effect itself, while the sole cause re- 
sided in the mind of God. 

We have assumed the existence, as a philosophic neces- 
sity, of a Being of intelligence and power equal to the 
involvement of that displayed in the living, moving and 
adjustable universe, and here is our argument in its de- 
fense. The work of a mechanic no more demonstrates 
his prior existence, wisdom, and power, than does the 
universe, the handiwork of God, proclaim His wisdom, 
power, and beneficence. 

If a mechanic should make a rude shelter suitable 
only for his horse, and this hut should produce a beauti- 
ful dwelling-place for the mechanic himself, then might 
the Being who made the world have produced only a 
rude, nascent, shapeless globe, containing only the lowest 
types of organic things ; and even these could no more 
have come into existence of themselves than could the 
rude shelter the man made for his horse : much less 
could the most wonderful machine man was capable of 



MATERIALISM EXPOSED. 1 65 

making in turn produce the man himself. This, then, is 
the silly fancy of evolution, bearing upon its very face 
the most palpable refutation of all its claims and preten- 
sions to science ; and more preposterous still, were that 
possible, because it cannot bring to bear in its support 
the first principle or fact of philosophy. 



CHAPTEj^ /I. 

MIND, MOLECULES, AND THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 

How cavie the Atoms to be Endowed with Gravity ? 

We have already seen that the sole cause of power, 
which is matter in motion, resides in mind. The agents 
of mind essential to motion, and consequently to power, 
with which every atom and form of matter in the uni- 
verse is endowed, are heat, light, electricity, chemical 
affinity, pressure, and gravity, each of which occupies 
space, and which nothing but matter can do. 

The theory of atomic or molecular motion, first taught 
by Maschus before the Trojan war, was, " that atoms were 
endowed with gravity, by which all things were formed 
without the aid of a Supreme Being." If this ancient 
philosopher, or those who afterward adopted his theory, 
as Epicurus and others of great celebrity, had gone one 
step further, and asked. How came the atoms to be en- 
dowed with gravity ? it would have compelled them to 
admit the existence of an intelligent personal Being, who 
not only thus endowed the atoms, but out of them organ- 
ized the universe, with all the progenitors of its living 
creatures and productions as well as its lifeless forma- 
tions. This work gave birth to nature and science. 

Although the physical school of philosophers, by which 
is meant those who attributed the origin of things to 
physics and not to mind, to atoms and not to God, 
acknowledged their inability to explain how the universe 
was built up by the working of simple molecules, yet they 
i66 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 167 

wished it to be inferred that when it came to be better 
understood, the science better known, the mystery would 
vanish. This is also the cherished hope of the evolu- 
tionists, and all the advocates of the physical theory of 
life by natural forces independent of mind. When this 
is achieved they expect to show how everything in the 
whole solar system, from man down to the most insig- 
nificant organic thing visible only by the aid of the 
microscope, has been built up molecule by molecule. 

It seems to us, however, that the legitimate teaching 
of the molecules and their phenomena is, that the solar 
system and its constituents must have been created, of 
course by an intelligent Being, and that if plants, ani- 
mals, or inorganic bodies differ from each other in 
quality, it is because the qualities and allied forces of 
the atoms also differ, and that this difference was de- 
signed by their Maker. 

Nothing in comparative anatomy, microscopic detec- 
tion, or the facts of natural selection is able otherwise 
even to approximate a solution of the mystery. 

The nebula theory of Laplace involves the same doc- 
trine, and as material motion only derives its power 
from mind, it is equally erroneous. It is, however, at 
this point that the problem for solution lies, and as it is 
fundamental it must be understood to enable us to 
arrive at the truth. The great fact of nature is, things 
viove. It matters not whether the things are men or the 
most minute atoms of which they are composed — for 
each is an organization of itself — provided it has chemi- 
cal peculiarity, adapting it to a place in the simplest or 
the most complicated organism or formation the world 
contains. 

The question is, Does the molecular force inhere by 
nature, ©r was it derived from an adequate cause be- 



l68 COSMOGONY. 

yond ? So far as plants and animals are concerned, to 
answer this question intelligently we must discriminate 
between the original pair of each species and their suc- 
cessive generations. That a material body has the 
faculty of starting from one locality and reaching another 
without regard to the space traversed or time consumed, 
presupposes that body to be endowed with some of the 
organs of sense, of reasoning faculties, will, and capable 
of being actuated by inducement or motive. This is 
voluntary motion, and therefore implies the existence of 
the faculties and the processes essential to such motion. 
Such phenomena are as true of the minutest animal- 
cule, whose instruments of locomotion are the finest 
hairs, perceptible only by the aid of the microscope, as 
of man himself ; and so far as the fact of such motion 
is concerned, and the intellectual processes involved, 
man has no superiority over the insect. Although the 
difference is comparative, yet it is very wide, and is 
manifest in the variety of motions with which each 
moves toward the accomplishment of an intelligent pur- 
pose or determined end. Herein man justly claims su- 
periority, and this is due to the higher purposes and 
susceptibility of his being, stamping him as the master- 
piece of organic skill. 

Mans Physiological Superiority Compared. 

It must be admitted that it is difficult to judge be- 
tween the degree of perfection manifested in the human 
organization and that so exquisitely displayed in the 
smallest insect existence. If we except the structure of 
the human brain, supposing its organism to be fully un- 
derstood as the seat of the mental faculties, there is just 
as much mechanical skill exhibited in the structure of 
the lowest insect, the entire physiological laws of which 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 169 

man can no more comprehend or simulate than he can 
understand the physical laws of the world, or make the 
world itself. The test of the comparative superiority of 
all animals endowed with the power of self-motion is 
the degree of their intelligence and future destiny. 

A machine of human invention and construction, in- 
volving the greatest number of functions, and capable 
of accomplishing the greatest results, possesses the most 
nearly perfect organization. So, among the works, or, 
if you please, the inventions and constructions of God 
displayed in the universe, man, the thinking machine, 
stands forth the noblest of all. As we recede from him 
in the scale of comparative anatomy, or of organic life 
and mental power, we arrive at simple inorganic matter, 
and as a consequence reach a point at the greatest dis- 
tance from the possibility of their existence. 

Hence the molecules and a thing of life stand at op- 
posite extremes. Thus we perceive that the wanderers 
toward the molecules in nebula, in search of life and 
motion, must forever be involved in hopeless disappoint- 
ment. Otherwise it were as reasonable to claim that the 
elements composing the iron ore, from which the skill 
of man constructed the steam-boiler and engine, had 
the faculty of doing and did this work themselves ; or, 
what is still more absurd, that the original molecules of 
which man himself is composed possessed the requisite 
skill for building, and did actually build up man him- 
self. Besides, if this were a matter of fact, it involves 
another conclusion equally fatal to skepticism. If the 
simplest atoms, not even possessing the power of mo- 
tion, produced man, the most stupendous mental power 
in the created universe, then man himself can produce 
an intellectual being as far superior to himself as he is 
to the atoms. Such a being would be capable of creat- 



lyo COSMOGONY. 

ing the universe ; for all analogies prove that the differ- 
ence between the faculties and productions of an atom 
and those of a man is so great as to qualify a being as 
much superior to man as he is to the atom to be the 
creator of the world itself. 

If the atom or man created the universe, it would 
surely be more reasonable to say that it was man who 
did the work ; for he can construct such wonderful 
things as steamships, while the atom can construct no- 
thing. Or if the universe evolved from either of these it 
surely would be more likely to have come from man, 
who combines in himself the grandest evolutionary ma- 
chinery to begin with. But if the universe evolved from 
either, it must have been first involved in one or the 
other. The act of involution presupposes the existence 
of an intelligent Being equal to the task. Hence by 
philosophic and scientific necessity we are compelled to 
admit the existence of a Being so much superior to the 
universe as to have been its Creator. 

The endowment of the molecules, inclining them to 
move toward each other in formation and from each 
other in decomposition — in the formative act in such 
lines and angles as were demanded in the previous or- 
ganic seed, as the center of attraction — demonstrates it 
to have arisen in mind, and also proves that it is the 
source of the origin of species, compelling each to pre- 
serve its own identity, and hence that there were at first 
as many progenitors as there are species, including those 
which have become extinct. 

Power ^ Mental — Its Conditions and Philosophy. 

The philosophy of motion, implying something mov- 
ing, is equally conclusive in the settlement of this ques- 
tion. Whatever moves does so upon conditions, whether 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. „ 171 

it be an atom, the earth, or a man. The involuntary 
motions of man's organism depend upon the existence 
of his vital organs. The voluntary motions depend 
upon the decision of his will. The decision of the will 
depends upon a motive. The motive depends upon a 
prior reasoning process. The reasoning process depends 
upon the organic brain and at least one of the organic 
senses, and the whole operation upon whether the man 
is alive. Had he never lived he would never have had 
a thought, a voluntary or involuntary motion ; which 
fact demonstrates our position : therefore, all these 
phenomena, from the least to the greatest, are effects in- 
volved in the organic or inorganic structures and pecu- 
liar chemical and electrical endowment. 

Formation by this movement consists in the combi- 
nation of simple atoms or their compounds within a 
certain proximity, and between which affinities exist. 
Whatever these conditions are, and wherever they exist, 
combinations must take place, A tree is the product of 
absorption by its roots and leaves of carbonic acid from 
the soil and air, and which the plant decomposes, form- 
ing from it its own food. Upon these phenomena we 
quote the following from Medlock's " Book of Nature " : 
" Vital power is peculiarly and exclusively distinguished 
by its capability of appropriating the simple chemical 
substances, and applying these to the production of 
bodies [other bodies], such as we, with all our resources 
at command, are utterly unable to effect, and probably 
ever will be. It is true that we can combine, in the due 
proportion of weight and volume, all the chemical con- 
stituents which are contained in the sap of plants ; but 
life alone [a living thing alone] is able to construct 
either a cell or an organ from these materials. 

" The fundamental work of life [or a living thing] ap- 



172 . COSMOGONY. 

pears to be its power of forming the vegetable or animal 
cell through the absorption or assimilation of new mat- 
ter from without ; and also by means of the nutritive 
matter, effecting an increase in all directions ; or, in 
other words, it posseses the power of growth. An accu- 
rate comprehension of this department of the science is 
attainable only through a right understanding of the va- 
rious organs of vegetation and of their functions, as 
well as through that of the nutritive media received from 
without, and the subsequent change of the latter into 
vegetable substances. 

The Food of Plants not in Nature. 

" What, then, are the nourishing media or food of 
plants ? We can only satisfactorily and precisely an- 
swer this question by stating what the simple chemical 
compound parts of the different vegetable objects are ; for 
it is an established fact that the smallest particle of their 
whole mass is not, and cannot be, self-produced ; therefore 
everything which they contain must be derived from 
without. The principal mass of every plant is composed 
of cellular tissue, vascular tissue, or of woody fiber ; 
there are also contained in the cellular membrane partly 
solid substances, as starch, chlorophyl, resin, salts, etc., 
and partly a watery sap, holding in solution sugar, gum, 
acids in union with metallic oxides, albumen, etc., to 
which are to be added, as the contents of many plants, 
volatile and fixed oils, with other fatty matters. 

" Daily experience also shows that the chief mass of 
every plant, by combustion, passes into gaseous combi- 
nations ; it disappears, and only the non-volatile metallic 
oxides and salts remain as ash, which forms an incon- 
siderable proportion of the weight of the plant. Are we 
to infer, therefore, that starch, woody fiber, gum, sugar, 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 173 

oil, albumen, etc., are the nourishing media of plants ? 
If so, the soil, the water, and the atmosphere, wherein 
plants pass their lives, should contain these bodies, in 
order that the plants might simply receive them there- 
from, and convey them to their proper place [and this 
would require the prior organization of the plant]. But 
such is not the case. We never meet with woody fiber, 
starch, sugar, albumen, etc., except in the plant itself ; 
it must consequently possess the means [faculty] of as- 
similating them [mechanically manufacturing them] and 
of combining them out of the simple chemical [gaseous] 
substances [principally carbonic acid]. 

^' Carbon, by itself, is totally insoluble in water, and 
hence cannot, through this medium, be introduced into 
the circulation of the plant. Neither can it be assimilated 
in its solid form, because, in accordance with the law 
of vegetable absorption, a plant is incapable of receiving 
any body into its circulation which is not in a fluid con- 
dition. All the carbon which is met with in plants must 
have been received by them in the form of a compound, 
which is soluble in water. This body is cardonic acid, 
which consists of carbon and oxygen. This is the chief 
constituent of the food of plants [or is that from which 
the plant itself forms its food]. 

" This material is principally received into the system 
of the plant through the roots, and partially through the 
leaves ; and the caj^bonic add is decomposed in the plant 
itself. The carbon is applied to the formation of the 
vegetable organs ; and its oxygen is allowed to escape 
by the leaves. The root sucks up the water in its neigh- 
borhood. All the water of both land and sea holds car- 
bonic acid in solution. It is produced from the never- 
failing supply of dead and decaying animal and vegeta- 
ble matter on the surface of the earth, and also by the 



174 COSMOGONY. - 

respiration of man and animals. During the develop- 
ment of the embryo, and while the stem does not appear 
above ground, and further till the leaves are produced, 
the root is exclusively the medium of supplying carbonic 
acid to the plant ; after this the leaves inhale through 
their stomata or breathing pores carbonic acid from the 
atmosphere, and exhale the oxygen, which, when sepa- 
rated from the carbon, is never retained in vegetable 
bodies. The separation of the oxygen only takes place 
during the day, and goes on with the greatest rapidity 
when the plants are exposed to the full action of the 
solar rays. 

" The atmosphere contains, in 5,000 measures of air, 
two measures of carbonic acid, which plants are contin- 
ually abstracting from it. The equilibrium is as con- 
tinually restored by the breathing of animals, by combus- 
tion, and by the decomposition of carbonaceous bodies. 
Although the carbonic acid of the air appears very insig- 
nificant, yet on account of the prodigious extent of the 
atmosphere, it is sufficient to yield an ample supply of 
carbon for the development of every plant on the sur- 
face of the earth. All the phenomena of the vegetable 
kingdom confirm this view, namely, that the great mass 
of carbon is received from the atmosphere, either 
directly by the roots, or indirectly by -the leaves; and 
this view cannot be questioned in reference to such 
plants as cactus, house-leek, etc., which grow on bare 
rocks, walls, or roofs ; or in such as grow in the water, 
as forget-me-not, hyacinth, water-cress, etc." (Pp. 459- 
461.) 

The Vegetable Primordial a Perfect Plant. 

We have supposed the primordial to be but a single 
vegetable cell ; but as the whole root as well as the ma- 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 175 

ture plant is composed of such cells, and as one cell 
cannot have a root, and as the plant depends upon the 
root to suck up the carbonic acid from the earth in 
order to grow, it must have been a mature plant, com- 
posed of both root and stem, and made before it was 
planted in the ground. What was true of a single plant, 
the progenitor of a single species, must have been 
equally true of those of every other species, as no spe- 
cies can produce another species. In accordance with 
these necessities we have the classic and philosophic 
statement : " And the Lord God made every plant of 
the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of 
the field before it grew. I have given you every herb- 
bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and 
every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding 
seed, to you it shall be for food. The herb yielding seed 
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose 
seed is in itself." (Gen. i.) 

In reference to the first cell or plant, certain facts are 
here taught. 

First. The plant must have had a root, as it is the root 
which draws the carbonic acid from the earth. 

Second. It must have had at least a single cell of the 
stem or body of the plant. This was necessary to de- 
compose the carbonic acid and from which to form its 
food — starch, gum, albumen, resin, sugar, chloroph}^!, 
wody fiber, etc. — without which not another cell could 
have been formed, and all the primordials themselves 
would have died immediately. 

Third. The work the first cell performed was that of 
life ; it therefore lived before it produced the second 
cell, which was the first act of growth. Hence the first 
was an act of creation, which act not only endowed the 
cell with the faculty of producing or evolving all the 



176 COSMOGONY. 

Other cells necessary to its own formation, but involved 
the necessity of evolving an additional department, 
capable of producing seed after its kind (of the same 
species) for its perpetuation. 

Fourth. The progenitors of each species were crea- 
tions, acts of mental power, involving in them everything 
susceptible of being evolved from them. 

Fifth. This being a work which nature was incapable 
of performing, it was superior to it, and therefore was 
supernatural, or miraculous. 

Sixth. This little vegetable cell had involved in its 
structure a chemical apparatus for the decomposition of 
carbonic acid and the faculty of forming all the differ- 
ent kinds of food which nourish plants ; hence it was 
more wonderful than the mosjt perfect apparatus of the 
artistic chemist, and performed a work of chemical com- 
position which no human chemist is capable of performing. 

The Formation of the First Flaftt a?i Effect. 

Every phase of these facts and phenomena, we can 
easily perceive, was an effect following the original cre- 
ations, the only cause being the Creator Himself. After 
such acts of organic and inanimate formation it is 
proper to say, // is natural j for thus nature was born. 
It was this endowment which gave molecular motion its 
birth, and which gave rise to the motion of all material 
atoms or systems, demonstrating the fact that power 
(which is the effect of matter in motion) originated in 
the mind of the Creator. Here, then, we reach the first 
and only cause, possessing all the intelligence and power 
manifested in the universe, involving in it every motion 
and phenomenon, and all of their possibilities. Its 
movements throughout all subsequent time are but the 
unfolding of these grand mental dynamics. 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 177 

Like the power resulting from the motion of a ma- 
chine made by man, it is found alone in the mind of the 
maker, including the fulfillment of the conditions by 
another, which the maker designed, in setting and keep- 
ing it in operation. A clock is made capable of mea- 
suring time, but combines in its structure certain condi- 
tions to enable it so to do. One of these is that it must 
be wound up, and he who communicates this power ful- 
fills one of the conditions which was in the mind of the 
maker ; but the power to make the clock and the power 
to wind it up were involved in both men by their Maker. 
AVhat the men did was evolution, and effects of their 
living organism, while their power thus to act was the 
prior involution of these by their Maker, and of which 
he was the sole cause. 

The comparative superiority of the machinery of 
nature over that made by man, although involving the 
same principles, is manifest in the fact that the laws of 
nature for the production of the tree inhere in the seed 
and its environment, and do not need another mind to 
set them in motion. 

To illustrate this fact of nature, so that we may under- 
stand how largely nature is thus involved, let us take a 
peach-seed and the mature tree bearing seed after its 
kind. This seed, like all others, has incorporated in it 
the embryo tree ; yet not an atom it possesses would ever 
move of itself ; it is not therefore a law of nature. Nei- 
ther is the soil such a law, nor yet the solar light ; nor is 
the heat received from the sun such a law. These may 
all exist, yet if the seed is kept out of the soil no vegeta- 
ble effect would follow. If the seed were planted in 
good soil, yet amid perpetual darkness, still no vegetation 
would result, as no plant can be brought to maturity, 
which means the reproduction of itself, without sunlight. 



178 COSMOGONY, 

The law of vegetation therefore necessitates the astro- 
nomical motions of the earth. Suppose the earth did 
not revolve on its axes : in that case the half turned 
from the sun would be always dark and cold : hence if 
the seed were planted on that side of the earth, not one 
of its particles would ever move except to decompose, 
as they certainly would decompose unless the tempera- 
ture was so low as to keep them frozen ; and this would 
be going back to motionless molecules instead of for- 
ward to organic life. 

To produce germination a degree of heat is demanded 
sufficient to burst the shell of the seed. This requires a 
substance which can pass freely through the stomata or 
breathing pores of the shell, expanding the particles of 
the kernels, but not those of the shell ; for were both 
expanded equally, there would still be no bursting of the 
shell, and as a consequence no vegetable growth. 

It is also a fact that atmospheric air cannot penetrate 
the walls of the seed, else it would have decomposed the 
seed in a few days after the peach had fallen ripe from 
the tree, just as it did the rest of the peach. This sub- 
stance, then, must be some modification of electricity, 
whose particles are so minute that they penetrate and 
permeate everything in nature. Coming now in contact 
with the kernel of the seed, and charging each atom 
with an electric atmosphere, and of course expanding it, 
they develop motion ; the movement of the atoms 
against each other produces friction, and the friction 
generates heat, the latter adding to the expansive force 
until the shell, unable to bear the pressure, bursts. This 
gives the embryonic roots of the seed access to the car- 
bonic acid of the surrounding earth, which it absorbs, 
and which the embryo cells of the plant decompose, and 
out of which other cells are formed ; and thus the tree 
grows, as we have already shown. 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. I79 

Plant Absorption of Carbonic Acid makes the Wind Blow. 

The motion of the atoms -of the seed, and those of the 
contiguous air after the plant rises above the ground, 
creates heat by their friction against each other. These 
atoms, expanded by heat and robbed of their carbonic 
acid by the plant, are compelled to move off in search of 
their chemical and temperatural equilibrium, while those 
of a lower temperature, charged with the normal quan- 
tity of carbonic acid, take their place. The effect of 
these atomic motions is the blowing of the wind. Of 
course it is upon a small scale ; but the same principle 
produces the hurricane or tornado. We have supposed 
this peach-seed planted on a perpetually dark side of the 
earth ; but as sunlight is essential to vegetable maturity, 
the revolution of our planet on its axes becomes in- 
dispensable to the promotion of vegetable growth. 

We have also supposed the seed planted in a dry soil ; 
but as moisture is another essential element of vegetable 
growth, dew or rain must fall upon the soil to prepare it 
to do its work. But this can only come from the atmos- 
phere, and as water is not one of the constituents of air, 
it must be drawn into the air by some inherent principle 
designed for the purpose. Of course this principle is 
evaporation, the water being principally taken from the 
oceans, lakes, and rivers. By this process the air be- 
comes so highly saturated that the specific gravity of the 
moisture precipitates it to the ground ; but it would fall 
again directly into the bodies from whence it had been 
taken, were it not for the motion of the clouds thus 
formed. Their motion is produced by the unequal ex- 
pansion of the air, principally resulting from the ecliptic 
motion of the earth, and that upon its axes, perpetually 
heating and cooling unequally different spaces in the at- 



l8o COSMOGONY. 

mospheric envelope. These interdepending molecular 
and organic departments, which, as we have seen, com- 
prehend the machinery of the entire system, present us 
with such fundamental facts of natural science as the 
following : First, not the simplest plant could live in any 
nascent or half-formed condition of the globe, or in one 
less perfect than that which now exists ; and without 
vegetables for animal food, animals could not have ex- 
isted. That the laws of nature are not abstractions, sus- 
ceptible of having an existence prior to. nature itself, 
but chemically inhere — were incorporated at the forma- 
tion of the bodies themselves — in a word, that they are 
the reciprocal effects of which all the atoms of simple 
elements, affecting their adhesion as well as organic or 
lifeless formations, produce upon each other. 

Either not understanding this universally interdepend- 
ing philosophy of nature or unwilling to make it known 
because it is fatal to the doctrine of the geological 
antiquity of man and the world — that of evolution and 
atheism — the most prominent naturalists of the present 
day declare the laws of nature to be no part of nature, 
as they existed before her and brought her into being. 

Says an eminent geologist : " You will learn from 
chemistry that all the gases combine according to regular 
and established laws. The gases did not make the laws, 
but received them from a living, intelligent lawgiver." 
(No. I, Popular Educator?) Here we have the idea that 
the laws are abstractions, made and applied. We may 
remark that this opinion was written about twenty years 
ago, when evolution had not so prominently evolved 
from marvelous human brains as now. Hence it gives 
a creator some work to do : He made the laws, and the 
laws made the world. The same opinion is to be found 
in Plato's mythology : " The Supreme Being made in- 
ferior gods, and they made the world." 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. l8l 

On the title page of " Principles of Geology," Sir 
Charles Lyell, quoting Playfair's illustrations of the 
Huttonion Theory, says : " Amid all the revolutions of 
the globe the economy of nature has been uniform, and 
her laws are the only things that have resisted the gene- 
ral movement. The rivers and the rocks, the seas and 
continents, have changed in all their parts ; but the 
laws which direct these changes, and the rules to which 
they are subject, have remained invariably the same." 

The idea is that as all nature is changeable and the 
laws of nature unchangeable, they are no part of nature. 
If a thing has the faculty of resisting the motion of 
another, it must be separate from the thing resisted ; 
and as these laws resist everything in nature, and have 
always done so, they are no part of Jier, and never were ; 
and if they have produced all the existences and phe- 
nomena of the universe, they are superior to it, or, what 
is the same thing, supernatural, and therefore gods or 
God, which gives the world a Creator and governor ; 
but hoping to free themselves from "accountability to a 
lawful, intelligent proprietor, they change his name from 
the God of nature to the Laws of nature. If the laws 
formed and govern the universe, and as this work mani- 
fests itelligence, they must be elevated into gods, or if 
combined, become a single intelligent God or personal 
Creator. On the other hand, if the laws result from the 
endowment, formations, and organizations of the uni- 
verse, then they follow these, and therefore had no agency 
in bringing nature into existence. 

Why Skeptics and Scientists are Driven to Absurdity. 

That it is the hope of the skeptics, in their efforts to 
discover a universe without a God, to relieve themselves 
of moral responsibility, is shown by the intense excite- 



l82 COSMOGONY. 

ment they manifest whenever their pet hobbies seem to 
be effectively attacked. Call in question the opinions of 
an astronomer, and he will not utter impertinent or arro- 
gant remarks ; but pursue the same course with the 
evolutionist and the chronological geologist, and they 
will resent it as though you had stolen their gods, or as 
though you had brought them face to face with their 
Creator, whom they had abused without stint. 

A few years before he died, when about to deliver a 
lecture before the students at Yale College, Professor 
Agassiz prefaced it by saying : " If my listeners include 
any who believe in the creation as written in the book 
of Moses, he had better not hear me." We need hardly 
say that for such pride of opinion we have no respect, 
and no fear of conironting its possessor, whoever he 
may be. Has he or any of his school given us a better 
genesis of the world, more in accordance with the phi- 
losophical or scientific necessities demanded in bringing 
it into existence ? Indeed, have they given us one 
which does not contain so many incongruities as to out- 
rage common philosophy, common science, and common 
sense ? If one of his auditors believed in the book of 
Moses, and that was error, it was his business to drive 
the error out of his mind by presenting sufficient evi- 
dence to sustain a better theory of creation. Is it the 
way to enlighten the mind of man to invite him not to 
hear you ? 

With all the light the nineteenth century affords, so 
utterly have the scientists failed to give even a common- 
sense theory of the manner in which the world came into 
existence that they wish to have it understood they are 
not interested in the question. They declare with 
Hooker : " A geologist has nothing to do with any 
theory of creation ; " while nothing is more evident than 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 183 

the fact that they do attempt in all their writings and 
lectures to account for the existence of all things by the 
genius of evolution, admitting, however, that the work 
consumed an immense period of time. By this miscon- 
ception of the philosophy of the laws of nature, as one 
of ^ the fundamental principles of natural science, it is 
not strange that Lyell, having embraced Darwinism, 
should have indulged in such mysterious utterances as 
Hutton's definition of the laws of nature. 

That all nature is the work of intelligence, and that 
intelligence can only be predicated of a personal being, 
is manifest even to the most superficial observer ; but, 
discarding the existence of such a being, modern scien- 
tists seek to elevate a part of nature — her laws — to the 
altitude of intelligent entities, clothed with the power 
requisite to produce the universe. If belief in the ex- 
istence of a Supreme Being is objectionable, belief in the 
entities or gods of the evolutionists must be equally ob- 
jectionable ; indeed, more so, for many are the gods of 
modern science. The polytheist believes too much, the 
atheist too little, while the Christian believes in the One 
living and true God ; and if he had no other defense 
than that it requires more credulity to be a polytheist 
— to believe in many gods than to believe in one — on 
the one hand, and on the other, more stifling of nature 
to reject than to believe in one God, this would be suf- 
ficient. 

The relations of light and heat with their phenomena 
also furnish a conclusive argument against the hypothesis 
of evolution. To our mind, the evidence is altogether 
in favor of the theory that the sun's atmosphere is elec- 
tricity and its light electric light ; and the fact that the 
atmospheres of bodies are composed of the same chemi- 
cal properties as those forming the bodies themselves, 



184 COSMOGONY. 

would seem to argue that the sun itself is a great electric 
battery, organized for the special purpose of preserving 
the relations and perpetuating the motions of the bodies 
in the solar system. 

It is well known that electricity is in itself dark and 
cold, which fact leaves us to infer that such also is the 
temperature and condition of the sun, and that light 
and heat are the effect of its electric rays passing through 
the atmosphere, whose friction sets on fire the oxygen 
it contains. That the rays of the sun are cold before 
striking our atmosphere would seem to prove them also 
to be dark. That they are cold would seem to be a fact 
inferred from the other fact, that the higher you ascend 
toward the sun the lower the temperature falls, and his 
rays correspondingly lessen their brilliancy. Aeronauts 
have in summer, and directly toward the meridian sun, 
ascended so high that they were nearly frozen. 

There are two facts illustrative of these phenomena — 
first, that the density of the atmosphere is greatest at the 
surface of the earth, and decreases regularly as we 
ascend ; secondly, that its extent also grows less. If 
light and heat are thus produced, it follows that they are 
at the greatest intensity on the earth's surface, decreas- 
ing in proportion to distance from the earth, until above 
the atmosphere all is intense cold and total darkness, at 
which height neither the sun nor stars would be visible. 
Supposing the stars to be suns, as astronomy teaches, 
their light upon earth results from the same causes. As 
the satellites reflect borrowed rays, their light is also the 
effect of atmospheric radiation. Aeronauts have also 
discovered, at their greatest heights, that the luminous 
halo of the sun had so perceptibly diminished that they 
experienced not much more difiiculty in gazing at it 
with the naked eye than in looking at the full moon from 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 1 85 

the earth. Here then we have an approximate under- 
standing of the wonderfully complicated law of solar 
light and heat, comprehending the sun, solar system, and 
organized atmosphere of the earth with its oxygen gas, 
and which must have been as perfect in all their parts, 
to render light possible, as they are at the present day. 
Hence, again, we see that their origin could not have 
been the work of evolution. 

The Progenitors of each Species Perfect at First. 

A proper understanding of the laws of nature in rela- 
tion to the original progenitors of each species of plant 
also necessitates one of two things — either that each 
plant was created and did not come from a seed, or that 
the seed was created and did not come from a plant. If 
the seed was first, it must have been perfectly formed, 
and could not have been a rudiment, for imperfect seed 
will not produce a perfect plant or one that will repro- 
duce its kind. If the plant was first, it must have been 
a perfect organization, as it could not have lived were 
a single organ performing a vital function only a rudi- 
ment. 

The doctrine of rudiments supposes one produces 
another — the first the second, etc. The fact, however, 
is, that not only has the rudiment of a vital organ no 
life, but its perfect development has none. Cut every 
leaf from the stem of a plant as soon as it appears, and 
the plant will die, because it is through the leaves that 
the plant inhales carbonic acid from the air, and out of 
which it prepares its food. It is evident that had the 
leaves remained rudimentary, undeveloped, the same 
result would have happened to the plant, showing that 
the rudiments of leaves were not vital or were not a part 
of the life of the plant. This argument assumes that 



l86 COSMOGONY. 

every other organ of the plant was perfectly developed 
— that is, had the faculty of performing its part in the 
growth of the plant, life being the result of the combina- 
tion, the function of each organ being essential to the 
existence of a living plant. How absurd, then, is the 
claim of the evolutionists, that the first organs of the 
first living thing was a rudiment, and therefore no vital 
organ at all ! 

This argument is so conclusive that a statement of 
these facts is its complete vindication ; yielding this 
sweeps away every vestige of evolution which is in any wise 
held to account for the manner of living things coming 
into existence by the power of nature. 

It is true, the tree might have been made a shrub, and 
in successive seasons grown to maturity ; but this in no 
wise invalidates the force of the argument ; for the 
shrub must have contained every element of the tree. 
Besides, we have the wonderful fact that most plants 
will grow from slips, forming their own roots ; but in- 
stead of this fact furnishing grounds for the inference 
that any first progenitor might have come into existence 
from a part of a spear of grass, it teaches exactly the 
reverse — namely, that its organization was thus more 
complex, rendering its species more fertile and tenacious 
of life than that of animals having passed beyond those 
which are part each, and instead of these being the sim- 
plest they are the most wonderful orga.nisms of all. 
Divide the body of a man, and neither part will become 
another man. 

We see in this fact of nature the exemplification of 
the wisdom of the Creator. Vegetation being the direct 
or indirect food of all animals, it should have had su- 
perior chances of survival and greater power of repro- 
duction. Upon this difference the most perfect book of 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 187 

nature has the following passage : '^ For there is hope of 
a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and 
that the tender branch thereof will not cease, though 
the root thereof was old in the earth, and the stock 
thereof die in the ground : yet through the scen^ of water 
it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant ; but man 
dieth, and wasteth away : yea, man giveth up the ghost, 
and where is he?" (Job. 14 : 7-10.) Mark the expres- 
sion : it is not that water will produce this effect ; but 
" through the scent of water " — the carbonic acid the 
water contains. 

Suppose that element whose function it is to produce 
seed in the tree had not been involved in the original 
tree, the result would have been that species of tree 
would have become extinct in the first generation. 

Suppose, further, that the organic principle, whose 
function it is to produce leaves, had not been incorpo- 
rated in the tree or shrub, or its embryo omitted from 
the seed, it would have rendered the tree or shrub leaf- 
less, and thereby fruitless. Indeed, it never could have 
been a tree or shrub. The existence of any such plants 
would have been an impossibility. In contradiction to 
all these facts and well-known principles of natural 
science, evolution says that any and all of these vital 
organs may have been, nay, were left out of the original 
progenitor, or reduced to a single one, and that only a 
rudiment ; and yet it was capable not only of producing 
its kind or species, but every other kind, not only equal, 
but as much superior to itself as man is superior to the 
simplest weed of the field. It offers no relief in theory 
to reduce to the nicest shades the differences apparent 
in the vital organs of any two ; for in fact they must be 
as wide apart as organic or inorganic, functional or non- 
functional ; in a word, as different as life and death. 
Life evolves life, but death evolves nothing. 



1 88 COSMOGONY. 

In summiDg up this argument we observe that every 
seed, whether original or of subsequent production, had 
incorporated into its structure the embryo of everything 
it is capable, in any conditions, of evolving. A depart- 
ment for the production of seed after its kind ; the 
chemical properties for the formation of all the organic 
and functional susceptibilities requisite for the develop- 
ment of the mature tree and the cojitinuation of its spe- 
cies ; the sap, from which a grain of wood is produced 
each year ; the bark, limbs, roots, leaves, form of the 
tree, shape of its fruit, its coloring matter and that of 
the leaves, flavor, attitude of the limbs, general appear- 
ance and size of the tree, with that wonderful function 
capable of multiplying itself an hundredfold, for the 
sustentation of the numerous species and races of ani- 
mals dependent upon it for its food — all these were 
crowded into the little world of wonder. 

Had not the original plants been thus endowed, on the 
power that made them would have been imposed the 
necessity of originally making all the seeds from which 
successive generations were to grow, and of preserving 
them in some great seed store-house, ready for distribu- 
tion to those who wished to plant them throughout all 
coming time and in all countries of the world, or else 
have been kept constantly at the work of making seeds 
to meet the demands of the ages. But the Creator 
chose the more practical method, the facts, philosophy, 
and science of which are set forth in His own book, 
thus : " And God made every plant of the field before 
it was in the ground, and every herb of the field before 
it grew, the herb yielding fruit after his kind, whose 
seed is in itself. And God saw that it was good." (Gen. i.) 
That each kind or species had preserved its own iden- 
tity is evident from the fact that the great Naturalist 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 189 

asked, " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of 
thistles?" (Matt. 7 : i6.) 

Here is demonstrated the fact that the first seed of 
each species was a perfect organization, containing in 
embryo every element of the plant and its products ; 
and if the plant was first, as it was, according to the his- 
tory given by its Maker, it was also perfect in all its parts 
and products, admitting of no omission or improvement. 
Hence, at every point of the argument, we find this spu- 
rious, so-called science standing in contradiction to the 
experience of every student of nature whose pride of 
opinion does not make him her teacher, and in the most 
palpable conflict with the facts and well-known laws of 
vegetable and animal existence. 

The Mischief of Attributing Results to the ''^ Laws of 
Nature^ 

It is so common in our day to hear all natural phe- 
nomena attributed to the " laws of nature " that it is not 
strange that they should have come to signify a kind of 
myth, like Plato's subordinate deities, moving with their 
immaterial fingers the various substances entering into 
the composition of the globe and solar system. The ad- 
vocates of the mongrel science of geology, chronology, 
and evolution profess, as we have seen, to have found 
in nature an amount of evidence sufficient to shut God 
out of her premises, and they do this as coolly and uncere- 
moniously as they would eject a disagreeable tenant 
from their own premises ; and in the next breath they 
tell us they have nothing to do with the question of the 
cosmogony of the world. 

Nothing, however, is more manifest than their intense 
desire and unflagging efforts to account for it all upon 
the hypothesis of evolution. Thus the most super- 



190 COSMOGONY. 

ficial and far-fetched theories ever palmed off on human 
creduhty are invented ; and, astonishing as it may ap- 
pear, they are regarded by many inteUigent people as 
plausible if not true. So complete is the sophistry in 
which these speculations are involved that men every- 
where, partly in jest and partly in earnest, refer to the 
possibility of their monkey ancestry. The remedy for 
this infatuation is to become better acquainted with the 
great scientific and philosophical principles and teach- 
ings of the facts of nature than are these scientists, and 
to show from the relations and interdependence of her 
works the necessity of the existence of a personal, intel- 
ligent Creator and that of the creation of the world. 

A proper understanding of what are called " the im- 
ponderable agents " relieves physical and mental science 
of half their mysteries. A discrimination between mat- 
ter and these agents for any other purpose than accom- 
modating classification we think unjustifiable either in 
science or philosophy. Our position is that every agent 
of nature (and everything is such an agent, without re- 
gard to the degree of its solidity, which produces an 
effect upon another thing), coming in contact with a 
denser matter, produces its motion, whether such agent 
be light, heat, gas, or electricity, is nevertheless com- 
posed of as solid atoms as iron or gold, and as really as 
these possesses specific gravity. The source of agency 
is the first cause, and therefore all agents are mental, 
and point back to mind as their creative and moving 
cause. But every substance, simple or compound ele- 
ment, which affects another, conveying motion to it or 
to its atoms, bears the stamp of a servant and not of pro- 
prietor. 

The fact that all solids and fluids are convertible into 
each other, thus throwing their atoms into motion (this 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. I9I 

being true of electricity itself), demonstrates our position. 
The identical atoms which form plants furnish nourish- 
ment for animals, and the assimilating and appropriating 
principles are to be attributed to the organic differences ex- 
isting between vegetables and animals. As these processes 
are results, and comprehend the entire phenomena, they 
point to the existence of a supernatural mind as the 
source whence all the power is derived. Hence we have 
the apostolic statement : " All power is of God." 

By the agents of decomposition resident in the atmos- 
phere, such as the gases, light, heat, and electricity, any 
solid may be reduced to the subtlest ether. Even a dia- 
mond may be made to blaze like a pine torch, and water 
burn like alcohol. A pound of ice exposed to the heat 
of the sun will be dissolved into such small particles that 
they will be lighter than those of the air nearest the sur- 
face of the earth, and, consequently, evaporated by heat, 
they ascend until they reach the location where they find 
their equilibrium or center of gravity ; and this is deter- 
mined principally by temperature. Another example. 
A pound of charcoal, which in round numbers is a pound 
of carbon, subjected to the action of a certain degree of 
pressure, to the action of fire, or that of the galvanic 
battery, will be changed into a fluid and evaporated, or 
pass into the air in the form of dry heat, or by electricity 
dissolved into still smaller atoms, and carried propor- 
tionally higher into the atmosphere, observing the same 
law as those of the ice. 

These particles, however, will not remain a separate 
bulk of carbon, but will diffuse themselves and mix with 
the other gases of the air, and in the exact proportion as 
carbon forms one of its constituents. Though carbon at 
its normal temperature is heavier than common air, and 
therefore subsides into vaults, wells, etc., and in such 



192 COSMOGONY. 

condition extinguishes animal life and flame, yet when 
expanded by the rays of the sun, or other heat or dis- 
solving agent, as we have said, it rises into the atmos- 
phere and becomes thus distributed. Thus our pound 
of coal is changed into another form and occupies an- 
other locality ; but is it not matter as much as it was 
before ? 

Nothing Imponderable : The Proof Test. 

It may be said, If it is matter it must have weight. To 
give the objection its full force we will admit that it has 
all been converted into heat, and heat is claimed to be 
imponderable. We answer, that as its particles have now 
entered into the atmosphere, of which carbon is one of 
the constituents, and Avhich as a whole weighs fifteen 
pounds to the square inch at the level of the sea, the 
carbon makes its proportion of the fifteen pounds. 
Though its particles are heavier than those of the com- 
mon atmosphere, yet by their chemical affinity for the 
lighter gases, such as hydrogen, they are suspended by 
elementary equilibrium. But suppose the pound of coal 
were changed into heat, would it not be a pound of heat ? 
Let every atom it contained be again condensed by cold, 
and formed into coal by some power equal to the task, 
would there not be still a pound of matter ? These par- 
ticles may therefore be thus formed and transformed, 
but each maintains its own specific gravity unaltered. 

Carbon and oxygen form carbonic acid. This is the 
food of the tree, and therefore that of which it is formed, 
and the tree may be burned into charcoal, and though 
the volume of the carbon in the atmosphere is much 
larger than when in the form of the coal, yet it is vastly 
less than when first expanded by the fusion or the dis- 
solution. The fire, the pressure, or the galvanism pro- 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. I93 

duced the disturbance or motion of the atoms ; this 
motion created friction ; the friction evolved heat ; the 
heat expanded the atoms into gas ; but during every 
stage of the phenomenon were they anything else than 
particles of carbon ? or at any stage of the operation did 
they collectively weigh less than a pound ! 

It may be objected again that if heat is substance, so 
is cold ; that if two bodies, one hot and the other cold, 
are placed in contact, the temperature of both will be- 
come equalized, the hot body giving off its heat and the 
cold one its cold reciprocally. 

Although this theory looks plausible, yet we think it 
defective science. The equalizing of temperature is 
accounted for not upon the supposition that the hot 
body loses its heat, which is a part of itself, but that as 
the particles of the cold body thus in contact are them- 
selves moved by the expansion, the friction gives them 
a higher temperature. An ounce of red-hot iron is 
brought in contact with a cold house ; the house is 
burned to ashes : did this mass of heat come from the 
little piece of iron ? Hence the experiment of weighing 
a piece of iron hot and cold, showing no difference in 
its specific gravity, furnishes no proof that heat is not 
matter or that cold is matter ; the demonstration being 
in regard to the heat, that if you heat to fusion a pound 
of iron or coal while on the scale, and keep it at that 
temperature long enough, every atom of it will go off 
into heat, and the balance will show that the heat weighed 
a pound. 

The reason why the supposed imponderable agents 
have not been found to have appreciable weight consists 
in the fact that all the attempts to detect it have been 
made on the surface of the earth ; whereas, if we would 
find the specific gravity of any substance, the scale must 
7 



194 COSMOGONY. 

be placed above that locality in which it exists m equilib- 
rium of density and temperature. To illustrate : if the 
earth were a globe of water, a piece of gold dropped 
anywhere upon its surface would sink until it found the 
exact center of the globe, or, scientifically speaking, 
"the center of gravity." Here the gold would have lost 
its specific gravity — it would weigh nothings not as much 
as a feather — for the attraction of gravitation and atmo- 
spheric pressure as well as the weight of the water are 
equal on every side. The question therefore is, Is this 
gold not matter because it has no weight at this locality ? 
Though at this location the piece weighs nothing, yet 
if you place the scale one foot in any direction from this 
center — and any direction is above it — the piece of gold, 
say a cubic inch in size, will weigh more than in any 
other place in the globe, and its weight will diminish at 
every increase of the distance from this center. In con- 
firmation of this principle, it is found that the same 
thing will weigh less on the top of a high mountain than 
at the level of the sea ; so that it would be a good specu- 
lation to buy gold on the Alps and sell it in the deepest 
valley below. So likewise the expanded and heated 
particles of any consumed or decomposed substance 
will ascend to a locality where their gravity and pressure 
are equal on every side, and where they weigh nothing, 
this being their center of gravity. Here they are impon- 
derable^ as the gold was ; but place the scale for weigh- 
ing them above this locality, and all will be found to be 
ponderable. 

Friction the Law of Heat and Light — both Matter. 

The arguments which prove heat to be matter also 
prove light to be such. If light were an abstract imma- 
teriality it could exist in an atmospheric vacuum, but a 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. I95 

thousand experiments nave demonstrated that it will 
not so exist. Light therefore is composed of particles 
of matter in a state of fusion. In order to illustrate 
this phenomenon it is only necessary to consider still 
further the pound of coal, and to heat it to a luminous 
state. This more rapid decomposition of its atoms pro- 
duces a corresponding increase of friction/ and the result 
is not only heat, but light. It must be remembered that 
flame consumes or decomposes compounds rapidly or 
slowly according to its intensity, and in this case the 
light is simply particles of carbon fed by the surround- 
ing oxygen. 

If the coal were only heated by the rays of the sun the 
particles would be moved so slightly that no light would 
result ; but if a torch with a flame of sufficient intensity 
were applied, the atoms would be thrown into such rapid 
disturbance, and such a corresponding degree of friction 
produced, that they would become lighted, or light. The 
consumption of the coal was not the work of the torch 
applied to it, for this only moved those atoms with which 
it came in contact — simply gave a starting motion — for a 
single match will start the conflagration of a city as well as 
light a candle. These disturbed atoms disturbed contigu- 
ous atoms, and these in turn disturbed others, and by the 
friction of their motion produced the heat and light run- 
ning along together until the candle or city was consumed. 

The normal condition of matter is cold, dark, and 
motionless ; and these were its condition before the 
creation of the world. By the mind of the Creator all 
its ultimate atoms were endowed with chemical and elec- 
trical affinities, which all are known to possess, giving 
them the faculty of affecting, and therefore moving each 
other, the slower movement of which became heat, and 
the more rapid light. These inherent endowments con- 



196 COSMOGONY. 

stitute the law of heat and light. These qualities of the 
atoms would in time produce inorganic formations, but 
never one of organic life. The representatives, therefore, 
of each organic species must have been organized of 
these atoms, and of course by so many acts of creation. 

These facts of science show that heat and light are 
not the product of immaterial agents ; for these, if they 
have any existence, cannot produce friction, as this only 
results from the motion of matter in contact. These 
facts also presuppose the existence of the compositions 
and organizations, as consumption, dissolution, or dis- 
organization can only follow prior formation and or- 
ganization. Light and heat, therefore, are not separate 
and distinct agencies from nature itself, but are integral 
parts of her grand machinery. It were just as reason- 
able to separate cold from ice, moisture from water, de- 
composition from inertia, or manifestation from light, 
where there are eyes to see. 

Take another illustration : A tallow candle is lighted 
by a friction match, which was itself ignited by the mo- 
tion of its atoms, started by rubbing it against another 
body. Let us now suppose that the whole candle has 
been converted into light and heat, except a small amount 
of ashes, every particle of which was carbon and oxygen 
in a state of fusion, and when the consumption was ef- 
fected the particles became again motionless, dark, and 
cold, proving that the identical atoms are light and heat 
when in a certain relation and degree of motion, but 
dark and cold when inert. The same dissolution would 
have been produced if the candle had been exposed to 
the rays of a summer sun : every day portions of it would 
have been melted and carried off into the air, until the 
whole candle and even the wick would have ascended 
and mingled with the same gases of the atmosphere of 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 1 97 

which it had been composed ; but the process in this 
case would have been so slow, and the corresponding 
friction so slight, that the particles would have been 
heated, but not ignited; and the amount given off by the 
dissolution would have been precisely the same as when 
the consumption resulted from the light of the match, 
only in a longer period of time. 

The inflammable and ponderable agencies of nature 
are therefore matter rendered hot and luminous by the 
motion of their atoms, the primary sources of which are 
the organized or compounded atmosphere, central sun, 
and the interdepending planetary system, compelling 
each other to perform all the motions assigned them by 
the Creator, evolving the mechanism He involved in them. 
Take away the sun, and the essential regular motions of 
the earth would immediately cease, extinguishing all the 
vegetable and animal life of the world. Remove the 
planets, and the sun itself would no longer be held in 
its place by their reciprocal force. In a word, all would 
go back to cold, dark, and dead inertia ; and yet the 
sun only heats and lights, and therefore perpetuates the 
motions of the atoms of which the solar system is com- 
posed. 

That heat and light are atoms of the consuming 
bodies we also have verified by our senses. In a close 
room, in which charcoal is burning, men or animals can 
live but a few moments, which is owing to the fact that 
the air becomes filled with heated, expanded particles of 
carbon or charcoal. What is true of the consumption 
of coal, in respect to its own atoms going off thus tested 
by the senses, is equally true of everything else. The 
reverse of this phenomenon is produced by freezing. If 
you freeze the most putrid organic matter, not a particle 
of it escapes into the air so that it could be detected by 
the most acute sense of smell. 



198 COSMOGONY. 

All Organic Bodies have Atmospheres. 

That all organic bodies, or their atoms, have surround- 
ing atmospheres peculiar to themselves is a fact of great 
importance in the elucidation of much of the phenom- 
ena of natural science. It is by virtue of these atmos- 
pheres that substances are distinguished from each 
other. These are composed of the same chemical prop- 
erties as those of the things or beings they surround, 
and are the' active agents in affecting both the formation 
and decomposition of the bodies within them. These 
gaseous atmospheres fill all the spaces between the par- 
ticles of bodies, from the smallest atom to those within 
the solar system. It is these molecular spaces which 
render all bodies or simple elements susceptible of con- 
densation by external pressure or internal contraction. 

According to another property of matter called im- 
penetrability, these atmospheres cannot be forced into 
the spaces occupied by others without displacing them. 
It is within these that the electric and chemical proper- 
ties are located which compel the atoms to cohere and 
to preserve their distances from each other, and which 
constitute the great law of universal gravity. It is also 
in this atmospheric constitution of material compounds 
or their molecules that the natural forces or laws are lo- 
cated. In these atmospheres are also held those pecu- 
liar properties called scent, by which, through the sense 
of smell, we are enabled to determine the quality and 
identity of organic things. That every human being is 
thus surrounded is demonstrated by the fact that a dog 
is able to trace the footsteps of his master. By this 
also the dog tracks his game. 

Thus has every animal and plant an atmosphere pecu- 
liar to itself, which is composed of the same gaseous 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. I99 

properties as itself ; which, indeed, arises from the de- 
composition and reformation of the organizations within. 
It is also a fact that electricity in some of its modifica- 
tions largely permeates these atmospheres, whether sur- 
rounding suns, planets, animate or inanimate bodies, and 
even infuses itself into the molecules, being so sub- 
limated that all other forms of matter are sufficiently 
porous to admit it. 

Another law of electricity is that it endows everything 
with the phenomena of polarity ; whether worlds or the 
smallest atoms, each has its negative and positive pole. 
If we were familiar enough with the electric constitution 
of things, it is probable we should be able to trace the 
law of force to a unit. We mean in the nature of things, 
after the things had received creative endowment and 
organization, and that all the imponderable agents, so- 
called, enter alike into the motion of the smallest atom 
and the rolling of a world. From what we already 
know, most of the phenomena of nature may be traced 
to the agency of heat. As we have seen, heat is the 
result of friction, friction the result of matter in mo- 
tion, matter in motion the result of its expansion and 
condensation, condensation the result of external pres- 
sure or internal contraction. If two pieces of wood are 
pressed and rubbed against each other, heat is the re- 
sult. A piece of iron exhibits the same phenomenon by 
hammering, and if the process is continued long enough 
and with force enough it will become red hot, thus also 
manifesting the phenomenon of light. This process also 
gives rise to the phenomena of attraction and repulsion. 

Heat a piece of steel to a certain degree, cool it sud- 
denly, and the particles will become electrically deranged, 
but if cooled slowly they will arrange themselves, with 
their negative and positive poles lying in the direction of 



200 COSMOGONY. 

the grains of the steel. Thus arranged, the cohesive at- 
traction of the magnetic atoms holds the body more 
firmly together than when lying crosswise the grains. 
When steel is heated and suddenly cooled it becomes 
hard and brittle, but if gradually cooled it is soft and 
flexible. This is owing to the fact that sudden cooling 
does not give the electric poles of the atoms sufficient 
time to arrange themselves parallel with the grains, and 
in the degree that it becomes hard it becomes brit- 
tle, which is owing to the fact that the atoms, with their 
electric poles, lie in every direction ; hence it is no 
stronger in one direction than in another. It also mani- 
fests a greater outward attraction than before, drawing 
surrounding particles of metal to itself. This is owing 
to the fact that some of the poles of the atoms are turned 
outward, exhibiting their strength in this direction in- 
stead of holding each other together. The hardening of 
all other metals is also produced by hammering, or the 
compression of their atoms. This explains the fact that 
a cannon will only endure a certain number of dis- 
charges, each of which acting as a blow hardens its 
atoms. 

Temperature the Universal Agent of Motion. 

In corroboration of these facts, showing the univer- 
sality of material motion by the agency of heat, we give 
below some extracts from Chambers's Journal : 

"Among the papers read before the Royal Society 
was one by Mr. W. Crookes, F. R. S., which treats of the 
action of heat on gravitating masses, and in its details of 
highly refined and accurate experiments, demonstrating 
that substances are repelled by heat and attracted by 
cold. The experiments were made with a balance 
formed of a beam of straw, with a pith-ball at each end. 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 201 

A lighter balance could hardly be devised. It was tried 
in common air and in a vacuum, and from its behavior 
certain conclusions were drawn. A similar series of ex- 
periments were made with a cross-beam bearing two 
brass balls, and with corroborative results. It is there- 
fore clear that density and temperature play an im- 
portant part in the production of the phenomena ; and 
if so, what then ? Why, that the answer connects itself 
with one of the grandest problems of science, that nature 
offers evidence of the repulsive action of heat and the 
attractive action of cold, and that, too, on the grandest 
scale. 

" By the radiation of heat from the sun may be ex- 
plained the phenomena of comets and the shape and 
changes of nebula, and as Mr. Crookes remarks : 
'To compare small things with great, to argue from 
pieces of straw up to heavenly bodies, it is not im- 
probable that the attraction now shown to exist between 
a warm and a cold body will equally prevail when for 
the temperature of melting ice is substituted the cold of 
space. For a pith-ball a celestial sphere, and for an ar- 
tificial vacuum a stellar void. 

" ' In the radiant molecular energy of cosmical masses 
may at last be found that agent, acting constantly 
according to certain laws, which Newton held to be the 
cause of gravity.' From this it will be seen that Mr. 
Crookes has started an investigation which in its results 
may explain the theory of the universe : [So says the 
editor, but we published this theory more than twenty 
years ago.] 

" Another remarkably interesting report (says the same 
writer), on the voyage of the Challenger discovery-ship up 
to the time of her arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, 
and which has been published by the Admiralty, to the 



202 COSMOGONY. 

same effect, and to all who desire further knowledge of 
physical and oceanic phenomena it will be especially 
acceptable. 

" The particulars are furnished by Captain Nares, com- 
mander of the vessel. They comprise the temperature 
of the sea in different latitudes, the extent of warm and 
cold areas, the depth of the water, and the form of the 
bottom ; and these, being represented in colored dia- 
grams, can be clearly understood. By a little study of 
these diagrams any one may see that the Atlantic is, so 
to speak, cut up into a series of basins, among which 
three are very remarkable : from New York to Bermuda, 
from Halifax to Bermuda, and from Bermuda to St. 
Thomas. Soundings taken in the neighborhood of Ber- 
muda prove it to be a solitary peak in the midst of the 
sea, having a base of not more than one hundred and 
twenty miles in diameter. 

" The southern and eastern boundary of the gulf stream 
was determined within three hundred miles of the 
Azores, 2,250 miles from the source of that great stream, 
which, as Captain Nares remarks, has not lost one par- 
ticle of its heat in traveling that enormous distance. 
That this heat plays an important part in the physics of 
the globe may be imagined, seeing that the whole mass 
of warmed water is estimated at two hundred millions of 
square miles in extent and one thousand feet in thick- 
ness." 

In connection with these facts and their import, we 
may add that as contiguous water as well as air moves 
in circles, it may also be found that in its circulation this 
great stream follows the elliptic motion of the earth, and 
therefore in a more indirect manner distributes the heat 
of the sun over the globe, equalizing the otherwise ex- 
treme temperature of the poles and equator — a theory 



THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 203 

much more likely correct than Lyell's supposition, that 
the unequal distribution of land on the surface of the 
globe accomplishes this work. 

It is also a fact that these gravities may not only be 
modified but completely changed in their several locali- 
ties by the action of heat and cold. For example : the 
steam in a boiler' may be heated and compressed to a 
solidity equal to that of the iron of which the boiler itself 
is formed. If the boiler should burst, the steam would 
ascend to its level of expanded air, which would be its cen- 
ter of gravity, and would weigh nothing unless it was 
forced above this center. It would now contract by 
cold and descend, if not obstructed, and reach the very 
center of the earth, again supposing it to be a globe of 
water, and that the temperature of the steam or its 
water would be higher than that of any other substance 
with which it came in contact on its passage. 

Heat the Law of Motion and Gravity. 

The same change is produced on the surface of the 
globe of water by the action of the sun as by being 
heated in the boiler : its surface waters are thrown into 
warmer currents, and colder ones rise to take their place, 
precipitating the warmer ones until in time every square 
inch of the water of the globe would in turn occupy the 
exact center of gravity. 

Thus we have aqueous and igneous phenomena keep- 
ing the whole matter of the world in a state of agitation, 
effectually overcoming all other forces and agents of na- 
ture. By this investigation we see how far may be un- 
raveled the mysteries of natural science ; and as nature 
and her phenomena are only agents, there must be a 
proprietor before and above all, 

We might accumulate evidence upon this subject 



204 COSMOGONY. 

almost without limit, but we must content ourselves 
without the indulgence. We are, however, sure that we 
have said enough to furnish the key to most of the mys- 
teries of nature. 

The only reason we can assign for the course pursued 
by the evolutionists, searching among the simplest mole- 
cules and animalculse for the starting point in organic 
things, is the hope that within this supposed mythical 
region the error would not be so easily discovered, and 
the drapery stripped from the shrines, or laws, or gods 
of nature at which Lyell, Darwin, Tyndall, Huxley, and 
the rest of their school pay their sordid devotion. 



CHAPTER VII. 

LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 

In discussing these questions we assume that there 
existed before the world, or nature — by which we mean 
the same — and as philosophic necessities, matter^ space^ 
duration, and God, the latter an intelligent personal Be- 
ing, of whom man is the express personal image. 

The question. Where did this Being come from, or 
how did He come to exist ? is as impossible for man to 
answer as for him to fix the line beyond which there is 
no space, or to define the chronological period, run- 
ning to a point beyond which there is no duration. If 
this Being had attempted to simplify the answer in order 
to bring it within the comprehension of the greatest 
created mind, he would have remained as ignorant as 
though no such effort had been made, simply because of 
his inability to grasp the conception. 

Equal want of success would attend the effort to teach 
a dog natural science, philosophy, or the metaphysics 
involved in the connection between life and mind. 
Why ? Simply because he is a dog. The same failure 
would result from the effort to teach a monkey the al- 
phabet or the multiplication table, and this simply 
because he is a monkey. Indeed, there is an infinitely 
greater disproportion between man and his Maker than 
that existing between man, the dog, or the monkey ; the 
just comparison in the latter case being between man 
and the machine he has or can make. In a word, the 
question involves the absurd idea of the thing made 
205 



2o6 COSMOGONY. 

endeavoring to comprehend the origin and greatness 
of its maker. The monkey, however, might follow the 
example of the evolutionists, who in this direction go 
one step further, and because of this circumscription of 
capacity deny he was made at all, and with equal pro- 
priety contend that there is a limit to space, an end to 
duration, that matter does not exist, and that there is no 
God. In harmony with this view we have the Bible 
statement : " The world by wisdom knew not God." 

As original matter had no motion, there could have 
been no power, for power is the result of matter in mo- 
tion ; and as the universe manifests the phenomena of 
power, it must have been derived from some other 
source, and as there always existed a Being of wisdom, 
it must have originated with Him. All power is mental: 
that displayed in the material world proves this Being 
capable, by an act of will, of putting material atoms in 
motion, which requires a physical agency or medium of 
communication, and of forming them into any desirable 
shape, either organic or inorganic. In accordance with 
such demands, the creation must have proceeded upon 
the plan of separation, compression, and endowment of 
the atoms. 

Strictly speaking there is no difference between men- 
tal and physical power, and to draw lines -of discrimina- 
tion is only excusable upon the ground of scientific 
classification. It requires but little reflection to con- 
vince any one that the true philosophy of dynamics has 
its source in mind. That manifested in the creation and 
government of the world to the mind of the Creator, 
while that displayed by the works of man, or, if you 
please, his creations to his mind. These last, however, 
are but secondary and not original, as man himself is 
the result of the first power. 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 207 

Electricity a Created Substance. 

Although electricity is the most subtile of all the so- 
called imponderable agents, yet it is not so high in the 
scale as the original matter out of which all things were 
made. In proof of this we refer to the fact that elec- 
tricity is endowed with certain fixed laws by which it is 
governed, and according to which it is compelled to ac- 
complish its various offices in the universe, which endow- 
ment is its creation. It must therefore have been con- 
densed from another form of matter not possessing 
these characteristics ; so that out of this invisible ho- 
mogeneous substance God made the visible and palpable 
universe. Hence we have such declarations as the fol- 
lowing : " We understand that the worlds were framed 
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were 
not made of things which do appear." (Heb. 2 : 3.) 
Or are seen, and were therefore made of things which 
are not seen, but still " out of things," and not out of 
nothing. In the same degree that this condensed so- 
lidity increased, the ease and rapidity of its motion 
decreased. 

To be convinced that electricity is composed of solid 
particles of matter, it is only necessary to have a proper 
view of the construction and operation of the galvanic 
battery. Three things are essential — copper, zinc, and 
acid. Arrange these according to certain mechanical 
rules, and electricity, or galvanism, which is substantially 
the same, is evolved. By the process the zinc plates are 
decomposed, and their particles enter into the composi- 
tion of the galvanism, which therefore is composed of 
as solid atoms as those which form copper, zinc, and 
acid. Indeed, all that is required to reduce or expand 
any material compound into the highest sublimation of 



2o8 COSMOGONY. 

which its particles are susceptible is to subject it to a 
degree of heat of sufficient intensity, or to a concen- 
trated force of electricity, when its particles will assume 
their original condition, but of course no higher than 
that of electricity, the decomposing agent. To go be- 
yond this would be to uncreate, which power resides 
alone in the mind of the Creator, as the laws of nature 
are limited to created things. 

Investigation into the susceptibility of substances to 
affect others, reveals the fact that the most powerful 
agents are the most subtile. Water may be moved by 
the wind, and its waves dashed in vain against some bold 
rock jutting into the ocean ; but let the electric flash be 
loosed from a powerfully surcharged cloud, and its 
sharp, swift bolt instantly shatters the same into frag- 
ments. Or let an accumulation of pent-up gases explode 
from beneath, and the very foundation of the neighbor- 
ing earth is shaken, and the rock which had defied the 
storms of a thousand years is suddenly rent and is swal- 
lowed up in the yawning chasm. It is the velocity with 
which a fluid moves, and not so much its specific gravity, 
which arms it with superior power. Even the planets are 
suspended and rolled in their orbits by the negative and 
positive magnetic forces, and the sun itself is held in the 
common center by their reciprocal action. 

If the sun, down to its center, is not a vast body of 
electricity, its surface is certainly thus composed. This, 
in magnetic relation, makes it positive to all the planets 
and satellites in the solar system. The sun, pouring its 
perpetual rays on these, renders them also positives, and 
as two positives resist each other, the centrifugal force 
results, compelling all the planets to preserve their re- 
spective distances from the sun and each other ; and as 
the planets form a balance of attractive force around the 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 209 

sun, it is itself held by their reciprocal attraction within 
the common center. 

Electric Attractioji and Repulsion of the Solar System. 

It is a law of magnetized bodies that while positives 
resist, negatives and positives attract each other, inclin- 
ing them to come together. Now as one-half of each 
planet always faces from the sun, this half is always dark 
and cold, and this constitutes them negatives, giving the 
attractive power toward the sun, or centripetal. The 
faces of the planets toward and from the sun being equal 
gives us a view of the astronomical law that upholds the 
universe, and shows why the planets do not fly off at a 
tangent or consolidate with the sun, and also why the 
sun is held in the common center. Here we have sus- 
pension, attraction, and repulsion, all by electricity ; yet 
within the recourses of all this grand machinery there is 
not a ray of light thrown upon the inquiry as to how 
these orbs came to be thus endowed, adjusted, or set in 
motion ; but in the most positive manner declare there 
was no capacity in the original atoms even to move 
themselves, much less to combine, intercombine, and or- 
ganize the stupendous system. 

The theory of Dr. Franklin is unquestionably correct, 
" That all terrestrial things contain a certain quantity of 
this subtile fluid ; but that its effects become apparent 
only when a substance containing more or less than the 
natural quantity is brought in contact with it. This 
condition is effected by the friction of an electric ; thus, 
when a piece of glass is rubbed by the hand, the equilib- 
rium is lost, the electrical fluid passing from the hand to 
the glass, so that the hand contains less and the glass 
more than its ordinary quantity ; these conditions im- 
plying the presence or absence of electricity and consti- 



210 COSMOGONY. 

luting the negative and positive." Dupay's theory sup- 
poses two kinds of electricity, called the vitreous and 
resinous^ because the former is obtained from glass and 
the other from " resin," corresponding to the negative 
and positive of Franklin. This theory is illustrated by 
the fact that *' two pith-balls or other light bodies, placed 
near each other and touched by an excited piece of glass 
or sealing wax, repel each other ; but if one of the balls 
be touched by the glass and the other by the wax, they 
will attract each other." 

We adopt both of these theories. Indeed, they are 
but parts of the same science. There are phenomena 
connected with electrics which cannot be accounted for 
upon either taken alone. While the theory of Dupay 
has no application to the electric force passing from a 
cloud surcharged to one only charged, that of Franklin 
equally fails to account for the fact, among many others 
which might be mentioned, connected with animal mag- 
netism — namely, that a weak child cannot be magnetized 
by a powerful man, who possesses ten times as much as 
the child. On the other hand, a mere child may thus af- 
fect a powerful man, completely depriving him of the 
power of voluntary motion. 

Indeed, it seems to be a principle of universal applica- 
tion that electricity becomes modified or changed into 
another kind by the chemical properties of every differ- 
ent substance with which it is allied, and it pervades all 
things in nature. These changes, however, do not to 
any considerable degree impede the rapidity of its mo- 
tions, though thus encumbered by bearing away the de- 
composed particles of the substance from which it has 
been loosed. Nor do these affect its control by the 
same laws as when in its pure state, whether as the 
agent of the mind or the rolling of the planets. In the 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION 211 

philosophy of natural science it is of the first importance 
that we understand the nature of electricity and the laws 
by which it is governed, not merely the negative and 
positive, but its own endowment with those properties 
which constitute it the most powerful decomposing agent 
of nature. 

Since the discovery by Galvani of the existence of 
animal electricity or its modification as connected with 
minerals — called " galvanism," after the electrician's 
name — as Dr. Wollaston has shown, most if not all the 
chemical effects of the galvanic battery maybe produced 
by electricity ; such as the decomposition of water by 
the Dutch chemists, long before the discovery of galvan- 
ism. Since that event the decomposition of the alkalies, 
and as a consequence other discoveries of great value, 
have been effected. " One of the most extraordinary 
facts belonging to the agency of galvanism is that the 
elements of decomposed bodies follow an invariable law 
in respect to the electric sides on which they arrange 
themselves. Thus, in decomposing water, or other com- 
pounds containing its elements, the hydrogen escapes at 
the negative pole and the oxygen at the positive. In 
the decomposition of salts and other compounds, this 
law in every instance is observed, the same kind of ele- 
ment being always • disengaged at the same pole of the 
battery." (Comstock's Chemistry, p. 71.) 

Electricity contains the Elements of all Bodies. 

These facts show in the most indisputable manner 
that the phenomena of electricity must be attributed to 
two kinds, and not always to unequal quantities. All 
the elements of compounds susceptible of galvanic de- 
composition — and all substances are thus susceptible — 
possess the feature of electric polarity, which fact im- 



212 COSMOGONY. 

plie \ that they were not only formed from electricity, 
but that each simple element contains the same chemical 
endowment as electricity itself, which renders it not only 
susceptible of electrical government, but discovers an 
affinity between it and all other forms of organic and 
inorganic matter, demonstrating the fact that it contains 
the positives for all the negatives, and the negatives for 
all the positives in nature. 

The conclusion from these facts and principles is that 
were all earthly substances, compound or simple, re- 
duced to their highest sublimation, the product would be 
"electricity," with its negatives and positives, possessing 
chemical affinities for all other forms of matter ; and 
these peculiarities were its creation. 

It is a universal law of chemical solution that if one 
substance will decompose another, it must be in chemi- 
cal affinity with that substance ; and as electricity or 
galvanism will decompose all other substances, it must 
therefore contain the chemical properties of all others — 
of course in their highest ethereal degree. It is this en- 
dowment which adapts it to be a universal agent, pene- 
trating, as it does, every element or compound of nature, 
whether it be the most compact formation or the finest 
ether. Here, then, is the first created substance, the 
creation of which implies its separation from original 
matter •; its condensation to a degree below such matter, 
and, in the third place, these peculiar endowments. 

Notwithstanding the original formation of this sub- 
stance, as above set forth, if nothing further had been 
done by mind, still there had been no creation of the 
world ; so that Darwinism could not have obtained a 
starting point, though it had had this matter, containing 
all the elements of nature instead of simple homogeneous 
atoms. The principal argument upon this point is the 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 213 

fact that as electricity can be thrown out of equilibrium 
only by substances of greater or less density, and as 
"there were none such then existing, it must have re- 
mained in eternal quietude. The connection of mind 
with material motion involves s^ch close metaphysical 
deduction that it is in danger of being overlooked. Of 
course its facts and manifestations are only to be found 
within the domain of the highest mental philosophy. 

The creation of the world involves the necessity that 
simple atoms of matter, without sense or intelligence, 
should have obeyed th^ word and will of an intelligent 
Being, and should have moved in lines, circles, and 
angles, in the formation of everything in nature pos- 
sessing them, to meet his desired purposes. If this phe- 
nomenon can be produced by an intelligent mind, 
analogy teaches that it may also be produced by every 
other intelligent being ; but the degree of such control 
is in proportion to the order of the different minds. If 
material bodies may be thus moved without any other 
contact than the mental agency controlled by the will of 
human beings, they certainly may be by the mind and 
will of God. The question therefore is, Can unknowing 
matter be moved by the mind of man, and made to per- 
form intelligent acts without bodily contact ? 

Magnetism the Agent of Mind. 

Connected with what is called " Spiritualism " is the 
phenomenon of table-tipping, including the moving 
of other articles, which almost every one has witnessed, 
and which, through ignorance of the scientific principles 
involved, have been attributed to the agency of spirits. 
Even were this true, it would still demonstrate our ar- 
gument by showing that immaterial spirits, as they are 
held to be, are capable of moving inanimate bodies, and 



214 COSMOGONY. 

of compelling them to perform intelligent acts, as the 
pen moves in the hand of the writer. If we touch a true 
principle of nature we can reason from a balance made 
of straws up to a stellar sphere. In like manner may we 
reason from these human phenomena, the mere straws of 
the principle, up to that upon which God endowed, sep- 
arated, condensed, and formed and governs all the 
bodies of the universe, and this implies their motion 
without direct contact ; but all produced by the agency 
of His mind, directed by His will for the purpose. 

Whether these phenomena, therefore, emanate or re- 
sult from the minds of men or that of man's Maker, it is 
the one grand science of mind, matter, and motion. As 
in the motion of an atom of matter, so in every other 
atom or combination of atoms, there is involved what 
may be denominated a threefold law : First, an intelli- 
gent Being ; secondly, a material agent, as the medium 
of communication ; and in the third place, an effect pro- 
ducing motion, A common illustration of this is seen 
in every act of self-preservation. The mind receives an 
impression, through a nerve of sensation, that the hand 
is in contact with flame, producing pain, when, quick as 
a flash, a suflicient quantity of the mind's electric agent 
is dispatched by the will, and instantly the muscles of the 
arm are contracted as though brought suddenly in con- 
tact with a charged galvanic battery. The muscles 
being attached to the bones by their respective tendons, 
the hand is immediately removed from the seat of dan- 
ger. 

This law, it will be observed, like every other natural 
law, is involved in the combination, and evolved by the 
effect produced, while the cause was in the mind, of the 
Being who made the combination. His work was the 
involution^ while that of nature is the secondary work of 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 215 

f 

evolution. In the movement of a table by these mental 
dynamics, let us suppose a number of persons assembled, 
either to witness or produce the phenomenon. Among 
them is one susceptible of the magnetic trance, or 
psychologic sleep (but, like Balaam, having his eyes 
open), who is known as the medium. The concentration 
of all the minds present becomes fixed, either by design 
or expectation, upon the medium and the object to be 
moved. No sooner is this done than the electric force 
of all these minds is agitated and put in motion, some by 
the direct power of the will and others by simple expec- 
tation ; the entire force, however, is dispatched from the 
brain and conducted by the nerves of the arm to the 
finger ends, and if these are in contact with the table 
the communication is unbroken and it readily moves, 
and moves also in the direction which those forming the 
circle wish or expect. If the table is not touched, the 
intervening air acts as the conductor of the mental force. 
The presence of those who are not susceptible of the 
mediumistic state, and who have little faith in the phe- 
nomena, shows, however, that they have some desire or 
expectation, having never before witnessed the manifes- 
tation. Their minds therefore assist, acting inadvert- 
ently though irresistibly on the mind of the medium, 
strengthening the impression that the object sought will 
be accomplished ; and as they believe, so is their power 
in the premises. Thus the entire mental force, or that 
of volition, of the medium becomes concentrated upon 
and conveyed to the table, the movement of which is 
thus effected. The immediate physical effect being the 
production of an atmospheric vacuum, the air above and 
around the table becomes so far electrified that its pres- 
sure is neutralized or balanced, of course counteracting 
the specific gravity of the table, and consequently re- 



2l6 COSMOGONY. 

quiring but the slightest degree of force to suspend it or 
move it in any desired direction, as well as to compel it 
to perform intelligent locomotion. 

To understand the formation of this vacuum it must 
be remembered that on every square inch of the surface 
of the table — above, below, and on either side — there is 
an atmospheric pressure of fifteen pounds. Let us now 
suppose that the surface air on the top, upon which the 
minds and fingers rest, becomes so far displaced by the 
electrical force thrown upon it that it weighs only four- 
teen pounds to the square inch, while the pressure be- 
neath remains at fifteen. Do we not see that the table 
must move upward, just as surely as that if fifteen pounds 
be put in one scale of a balance and fourteen in the 
other, one will fall and the other rise ? Do we not also 
see that if the mental force be concentrated on one side 
of the table, the result will be its movement in the direc- 
tion of the vacuum thus produced ? If the manipulators 
advance with the table, the vacuum follows by the con- 
tinuous displacement of the air. 

Inanimate Things Perform Intelligent Locomotion. 

As the motion of the table is caused by mental force 
and that of volition, it is as obvious that the table must 
perform intelligent action as that the arms and legs of a 
human being move in obedience to the will, and intelli- 
gently after proper training. Thus tables are made to 
write intelligently, which the hand of man cannot do 
until it has had suitable training. This fact has been 
witnessed by almost every one, in the operation of the 
planchette, by the use of which any one may demon- 
strate it in his own family, without the presence of a 
medium. All possess the power, to a limited degree, of 
thus enduing with motion inanimate objects ; for, being 
a law of mind, it must apply to all minds. 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 217 

Thus we see how and from whence emanated the 
original power to form and combine inanimate matter, 
and gain some conception of the mental agency inher- 
ently allied with all organic and inorganic bodies, as we 
find them arranged by the great Mechanic of the uni- 
verse — and the inanimate, so chemically and electrically 
bound together that when once set in motion they are 
compelled to perpetuate and carry out His designs until 
they are accomplished. The law of universal gravity 
is but another name for the inherent construction and 
constitution of matter by the infusion of mental dynam- 
ical force. It is the original involvement of motive 
power, while gravity is the evolvement or secondary 
power. 

The principle of mind controlling atmospheric pres- 
sure is that by which Christ walked upon the water and 
ascended into heaven. Being the Creator of nature's 
laws, all that was necessary for Him to do in order to 
perform these acts was to remove one pound of atmos- 
pheric pressure from above His head and increase it to 
that extent beneath His feet. By so doing He would 
be carried to the outer verge of the heavens, from whence 
He could make gravities to convey Him majestically to 
any part of His universe. 

We might introduce here scores of experiments which 
we have made and witnessed, illustrating this principle 
of mental science, but we prefer giving the following, 
which is supported by authority that no intelligent mind 
will question. We copy from a paper read by Dr. Bell, 
as the report of a committee before the superintendents • 
of the Hospital for the Insane of the city of Boston, 
which was published in the American Journal of In- 
sanity. 



2l8 COSMOGONY. 

Experiments by Dr. Bell. 

Dr. Bell began by expressing surprise at finding that, 
although there was a large number of persons whose 
lives were spent in investigating the reciprocal influences 
of mind and body, scarcely a single member had dur- 
ing the year bestowed a moment's attention upon a topic 
directly in their way, which, whether regarded as an 
epidemic, mental delusion, or a new psychologic science, 
was producing such momentous effects upon the world — 
whose adherents are now said to number over two mil- 
lions, with an extended literature in many forms, and 
which had taken hold of many minds of soundness and 
power. 

" I am aware that many were disposed to cast ridicule 
on those who were engaged in investigating the (so- 
called) spiritual phenomena, and especially when it was 
being prosecuted seriously by hospital directors ; but 
if there were any class of men who had duties in this 
direction it was ourselves. Our reports contain the 
record of many cases of insanity said to have been 
produced by it ; it was important, therefore, that its 
precise length, breadth, and nature should be studied, 
as it is well known that mystery always loses its terrific 
character when boldly met and exposed to the light 
of day. 

" On returning from Washington I had a peculiar 
wish to verify my previous observations on witnessing 
what are technically known as the physical manifesta- 
tions. I could not, however, doubt my former personal 
observations, addressed to my senses of sight, hearing, 
and touch, and separated, as I believe, from any possi- 
bility of error or collusion, and yet the offer made by 
Professor Henry of a large sum of money to any per- 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 219 

son who would make one of his tables in the Smithson- 
ian Institution move, and the obvious incredulity of 
many of the brothers, had produced an ardent desire to 
witness a full and unequivocal experiment of this char- 
acter. 

"An opportunity was not long wanting : on the occa- 
sion of a well known gentleman, long connected with the 
insane, who had never witnessed any of these phenom- 
ena, whom I invited to accompany me to a family where 
a medium of considerable power was visiting. The 
family was one of the piost respectable in the vicinity, 
the head of it being a gentleman with whom was in- 
. trusted millions of dollars of other people's money, as 
the financial manager of a large banking institution, who, 
with his wife, had been for years perfectly convinced of 
the spiritual character of these manifestations. 

*' The medium was a young lady of about eighteen 
years, of a very slight figure and weighing between eighty 
and ninety pounds, who had discovered herself to be a 
medium while visiting these relatives. A family of such 
character and position in society was beyond suspicion, 
or anything like irregularity, collusion, or fraud. 

" AVe were so fortunate as to find the medium at home, 
and the circle was composed of the five individuals 
named. The ordinary manifestations of raps, beating 
musical instruments, and responses to mental questions 
were remarkable on this occasion, as well as the move- 
ments of the table under the contact of mere finger-ends. 
Finding circumstances so favorable for an exhibition of 
more astonishing things, I proposed to try the great 
experimentum cruets of moving the table without human 
contact. I arranged things to suit myself, beginning by 
opening the table wider than common, and inserting two 
movable leayes, increasing its length to about ten feet 



220 COSMOGONY. 

This gave me an opportunity to clearly discover any 
wires or machinery which might have been attached to 
it, as well as to enable me to answer positively as to their 
non-existence. The table was a solid structure of black- 
walnut, with six carved legs with castors attached, and 
of such great weight that I could but just move it by a 
full grasp of the thumb and finger of both hands. 

" The persons stood three on the one side and two 
on the other, with a space between them and the table 
of about eighteen inches. Being tall, I had no difficulty 
of seeing between the table and all the persons present. 

A Table Moves without Human Contact. 

" At a request, the table commenced its motion with a 
moderate speed, occasionally halting and then gliding 
along a foot or two at once. It seemed to me that its 
motion would have been continuous if the hands above 
it had followed it in the same position which they occu- 
pied at the first. In reaching the iron rod on which 
the folding doors traversed, which projected a half or 
three-fourths of an inch from the level of the carpet, 
it raised at once over it, entering the other parlor, 
through which it passed until it came near a pier-glass 
which stood at the opposite side of the room. At a re- 
quest, the motion was reversed, and it returned until it 
again reached the iron rod. Here, however, it stuck, 
although it heaved and creaked and struggled ; but all in 
vain ; it could not surmount the difficulty. The medium 
was then impressed to write, and seizing a pencil, hastily 
wrote that if the forelegs \yere lifted over the bar, they 
(the spirits) thought they could push the others over, 
which was accordingly done, and the motion continued. 
Once or twice during the movement of the table I re- 
quested the whole circle to withdraw a little further from 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 221 

it, in Older to see how far the influence would extend, 
and it was found that when a greater distance was 
reached (say two feet) the movement ceased, and a delay 
of three or four minutes occurred before it commenced, 
conveying the idea that, if broken off, a certain re-accu- 
mulation of force was necessary in order to put it again 
in motion. 

" The table finally reached the upper end of the par- 
lor from which it started, about four feet from the merid- 
ian line of the room. I expressed my gratitude to the 
company for the very complete exhibition with which 
we had been favored, but remarked that it would be en- 
hanced if the spirits would move the table about four 
feet at right angles, so that the chairs would come right 
again for their late occupants, which was immediately 
done. The performance was so perfect and satisfactory 
that nothing more was asked on that occasion. 

" This," remarked Dr. Bell, " was the sixth time I 
have seen tables move without human contact, and all 
under circumstances apparently as free from suspicion 
as that just described. I might have stated that the 
table traveled on this occasion over fifty feet. A clergy- 
man of extraordinary sagacious perceptions took this 
medium home with him, where she had never been be- 
fore, and in the presence of his family alone, one of his 
own tables was made to go through the ■ fullest locomo- 
tion without human contact." 

A Reflection from such Teaching. 

From the teaching of such facts and principles, . can 
we come to any other conclusion than that all compound 
bodies, or their smallest divisible atoms, derive their 
power to move and to affect each other from mind, and 
therefore that all power is mental ? 



3 22 COSMOGONY. 

If evolution could furnish for its vindication such 
facts and demonstrations as those we have presented, 
allied, as they are, with the most transcendent of all 
sciences, that of mind, it would not only claim respect- 
ful consideration, but would take philosophically the 
front rank in natural science. We believe also that were 
those who are so prominently committed to the theories 
of the geological antiquity of the world and the origin 
of things by evolution as well informed as these laws 
of mind and matter render it possible for them to be, 
they would redeem modern science from the degradation 
into which these godless speculations have sunk it, and 
themselves from the groveling mysteries in which they 
must otherwise continue hopelessly to grope and 
flounder. 

If the human mind has the power, as above recorded, 
to counteract on a small scale, the laws of pressure and 
gravity, cannot the Maker of that mind control or sus- 
pend them at pleasure ? and is it not demonstrated also 
that He is their Creator ? A man speaks to an inani- 
mate table, and it moves toward the accomplishment of 
an intelligent purpose which was the mental conception 
of the speaker ; and it was done. God speaks to the 
homogeneous matter of the great deep, lying dead and 
motionless, saying, "Lei there be light." "And his 
spirit" (mental agent) "moved upon the face of the 
waters, and there was light." Were the whole operation 
written, it would have been : "And the motion of the 
mental agent created friction, and the friction created 
light." 

God speaks again — " Let dry land appear." — and in 
accordance with His wish and conception sends down 
His electric mental agency through all the vast deep, en- 
dowing every atom with chemical aflinity and electrical 



LIMIT OP HUMAN CONCEPTION. 223 

polarity, as well as variety of densities, pressure, or grav- 
ity ; and now behold every atom seeking its equilib- 
rium and kindred ! Some sink toward the center by 
their comparative weight, forming the lower strata, the 
next lighter covering it, and so on until the soil is spread 
over the face of the round world. The more sublimated 
rush above the solids, forming the heaven, and the dry 
land appears. This is named earth. With these crea- 
tions science was born, which gives us feeble creatures 
a faint conception of the mental philosophy of the 
great God giving birth to the dynamics of the universe. 

Nothing has so excited the ambitious pride of man as 
the attempt to write out the history of God and the 
origin of things. All such efforts bear the feeble stamp 
uf the thing made attempting to comprehend its maker, 
and give us the measure of their childish superficiality. 
Seeing this folly, the great Maker had the sentence 
written : *' The world by wisdom knew not God." 

The mythological speculations of the great men of the 
past concerning the "Supreme Being," as some 
of them called Him — and even these were poly- 
theistic — were of a low moral standard. Not even Plato 
gives us an argument drawn from nature, or from its 
inadequacy to account for its own existence, to show 
that he had any conception of His being the maker of 
the world. As to moral character, Socrates affirms : 
" It was never supposed that in the gods dwelt virtue." 
Among the ancients no one was better qualified to pro- 
nounce such an opinion than, Socrates. 

While, however, such were the views entertained by 
the ancients respecting the character of God, history 
does not furnish a single example of an intelligent 
atheist or evolutionist — not one who rejected the per- 
sonal embodiment of the godhead, or denied that nature 



S24 COSMOGONY. 

did not reveal His underived and therefore " eternal 
power." The great apostle of the Gentiles referred to 
the teachings of this fact in nature thus : " For the in- 
visible things of God ar^ clearly seen from [by] the 
creation of the world, being understood by the things 
that are made ; even His eternal power ^nd godhead." 

Nature does not Reveal the Moral Character of God. 

" While thus in nature was lodged the indisputable evi- 
dence of the existence of a personal God, and hence the 
foundation for natural religion, yet it was only His eter- 
nal awfulness which overwhelmed the worshiper, while 
it utterly failed to reveal an idea of His being either 
lovely in Himself or mercifully inclined toward His 
creatures. 

The inflexibility of natural laws, the merciless manner 
in which they execute their own penalties for every viola- 
tion, preclude the idea of His being either good or merci- 
ful. Let the deist, so vociferous in his praises of the 
God of Nature and so clamorous against the God of the 
Bible, remember that although the former exempts from 
suffering all who obey His laws, yet, without distinction 
of person, rank, age, or sex, or of making any allowance 
for ignorance. He visits every infraction with merciless 
severity ; while the God of the Bible gives timely notice 
and full written information of His intent to punish, the 
reasons why, and the condition of escape. In view of 
this, it is proper to exclaim of the God of the Bible, 
" Behold the goodness and severity of God ; " and 
equally proper, " Behold only the severity of the God of 
Nature." Behold the mercy of the Christian's 'God ; 
behold the implacability of the deist's god." 

Of the views of the ancients which have come down to 
us, those which approach nearest to skepticism are those of 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 225 

Xenophon, a pupil of Socrates, who was the first to pub- 
lish the discourses of that philosopher ; and these only 
relate to the shape of the Supreme Being, not ques- 
tioning his personal existence. " There is," says he, 
" one God supreme above all other gods, diviner than 
mortals, whose form is not like unto man's, and as un- 
like his nature ; but vain mortals imagine that gods, like 
themselves, are begotten, with human sensations, voice, 
and corporeal members. So, if oxen or lions had hands 
and could work in man's fashion, and trace out with 
chisel or brush their conception of godhead, then would 
horses depict gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, each 
kind the diviner with its own form and nature endow- 
ing." 

Here is a man, all alone in his presumption, calling in 
question the opinions of all the wise men of Greece, 
Persia, Chaldea, and Egypt, whose national deities, sup- 
posed to represent the godhead, were fashioned after the 
similitude of man. What do his assumptions weigh 
against the testimony of such an array of wisdom, inas- 
much as it is all matter of opinion and conjecture ? 

Man the Natural Image of God. 

On the supposition that God desired to make a being 
most pleasing to Himself, and deemed Himself to be the 
most perfect model, would He not fashion him like Him- 
self ? From the greatest source of divine wisdom we 
add the following : " And God created man in his 
own image, after his likeness ; " and also that Jesus 
Christ is the Christian's God ; and he is the express im- 
age of God's person, and yet the perfect likeness of man. 
It should be remembered that the definition Socrates 
gives of virtue is that it is the power philosophy incul- 
cates, which, if attained, enables men to keep their pas- 
8 



226 COSMOGONY. 

sions under control, while vice consists in yielding to 
them ; and although such virtue pleased the gods, yet 
they themselves did not possess it ; and while they had 
gods representing every bad passion, they had none to 
represent human kindness and benevolence. 

How could heathenism have entertained any other 
views of the God of Nature, looking out, as they did, 
upon a world convulsed by physical derangement and 
moral disorder — a world of conflicting elements and 
deadly agents, which, from the light of nature alone, 
seem to serve no other purpose than to disappoint man's 
hopes, confuse his calculations, and rudely trample down 
his present interests and future prospects ? Behold 
some of these : Earthquakes to devour, floods to inun- 
date, conflagrations to burn, hurricanes and tornadoes 
to devastate, lightnings to scathe, wars to kill, famines 
to starve, " pestilence walking in darkness and wasting 
at noonday," indiscriminately killing the aged and the 
infant, the good and bad. Add to this picture the whole 
troop of deadly diseases, warring against everything that 
lives, and you have a partial view of the disposition or 
moral character of the God of Nature. At the same 
time, no reason is given for permitting all these to exist, 
or apology for their origin, or what end is proposed to 
be accomplished by their agency. 

Of such a deity, the worship by the votaries of natural 
religion can only be extorted by awful respect or appre- 
hensive dread. If deists or natural religionists entertain 
truer or better views of God in this age, it is because 
they emanate from a better revelation — one which gives 
the reasons for all these sufferings and hardships. 

Or has nature given proof of milder administration 
since the days of Socrates ? Does not the curse con- 
tinue to devour the earth as t)f old, and indeed with a 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 227 

greedier maw ? Does the universal destroyer, Death, re- 
linquish any of his merciless demands ? Does he make 
discriminations in favor of the good, the wise, and the 
useful, so that these survive while the others perish ? 
Do the disturbances of the natural elements, in seeking 
their equilibrium, go forth with milder tread ? Even 
supposing the present generation to be more tolerably 
dealt with — the God of Nature relaxing the rigor of his 
arbitrary laws, conferring greater physical vigor, longer 
life in which to grow wiser and more virtuous, by obedi- 
ence to his demands — what apology can he make to the 
two hundred generations of the dead for their sacrificial 
offering upon such an altar ? Of what avail to them is it 
that a few better students of nature have flourished — 
even so wise as to have discovered that the world made 
itself, or that it always did and always will exist ? Or 
that others of the same school have discovered that 
nature (their god) brought man into being through an 
ancestral line of weeds, shell-fish, and monkeys ? and that 
this has been repeated several times, and as often have 
all gone back to extinction ? 

O ye generations of the dead, be consoled by the re- 
flection that your metempsychosal existence has devel- 
oped such grand exemplars of thought and originality — 
men who can comprehend the evolution, from a mere 
mushroom, of a world teeming with life and power, and 
even bring the mushroom itself into existence — men who, 
though thus imbued with the marvelous and wonderful, 
yet cannot admdt the infinitely more reasonable hypoth- 
esis that the world was made by an intelligent Being 
equal to the task ! 

If nature does not reveal any just conception of her 
Maker, or the end He proposes to accomplish with the 
world and its inhabitants, and if there are satisfactory 



228 COSMOGONY. 

assurances entertained in relation to these questions, 
must they not have originated from some other and 
superior source, and therefore from the Bible ? 

Personality of God Revealed by that of Man. 

It is true that we may draw some correct inferences as 
to the nature of this Being from the works displayed in 
the animate and inanimate world. From the organiza- 
tions of nature we may learn the embodiment of God, 
which idea cannot be separated from that of substantial 
being. These manifest omnipotent power, and as power 
emanates from mind, therefore there is an Almighty. 
As man, the greatest example of created skill, has a local 
existence, so also has the Creator Himself. If in order to 
the possession of intelligence a living being is required, 
as manifested in man, such must also be the nature of 
God Himself. If man was made of a single element, 
then might the Deity hz likewise so made. If made of 
matter and occupies space, can God be immateriality — 
not matter, or nothing — and occupy no space ? 

Thus we might reason according to all the analogies 
of nature and being, and find nothing to warrant the 
heathen conception of the Deity as expounded by Platonic 
philosophy, nor the least light thrown upon His real dis- 
position toward men, though unmistakably reading from 
the book of nature of the existence of God as a philo- 
sophic necessity. 

That the most exalted views upon all cosmical sub- 
jects entertained at the present day are radiations from 
Christianity, taught alone in the Bible, renders it indis- 
pensable to apply to its teachings if we would obtain a 
true theory of the world and the object of its creation. 

To shut our eyes to this light is to involve history, 
science, and philosophy alike in the most profound mys- 



LIMIT OF HUMAN CONCEPTION. 229 

tery. Especially is this confusion manifest in the writ- 
ings and teachings of those who set God and his written 
revelation aside. They find a world of confused ma- 
terial, embracing untold generations of living creatures, 
but until very late in the history of creation not a ves- 
tige of man ; and even then his appearance was- a mere 
accident. Indeed, nothing was designed, for there was 
no designer ; but he comes into existence by a freak of 
unintelligent matter. 

The world itself had been running along in its un- 
knowing and unbroken career through thousands of 
years, ages, or epochs, turning out successive generations 
of beautifully organized vegetables and animals arrayed 
in variegated splendor, the flora odorously burdening 
the air, the great sun pouring his benignant rays upon 
the unseen flowers and groveling beasts, with not an eye 
raised to behold the glory. The stars shone down from 
their canopied heights, but not a living being knows of 
their existence, not one capable of distinguishing be- 
tween the most transcendant beauty and the most fabu- 
lous ugliness : the animals living merely as prey for 
each other. Finally, man crawls into existence, through 
a long line of weeds, fishes, insects, birds, and monkeys, 
ranking only a little higher in the scale, as a monkey is 
supposed to be higher than a wolf. O Science ! O Phi- 
losophy ! if these thou art, what hast thou and thy gods 
done ? 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 

Six Twe7tty-four-hoiir Days Ample Time for the World's 
Creation. 

We have already shown that the time alloted by na- 
ture for the work of bringing organic things into exist- 
ence depends upon the character of the thing created, 
and is limited to the possibilities of the case ; further, 
that six literal days were not only ample, but could not 
have been consumed in the work of organization. A 
being capable of performing such a work was under no 
necessity of consuming long periods, much less of ex- 
perimenting upon simpler forms in order to qualify 
Himself for making man, especially as we have the fact 
that prior to this He had created angels, a higher order 
of beings. We frankly admit that had creation been 
the work of senseless nature, the time required might 
Avell have been computed as an endless succession of in- 
definite periods ; indeed, no time would have been of 
sufficient length. Those who suppose this to have been 
the work of the god Nature., and who study his ability, 
and thereby discover his inability, seem never satisfied 
with the figures employed ; even millions of centuries 
are too limited for the performance of his work. Of 
course they thus betray their w^ant of confidence in his 
creatorship, well knowing that it is a poor workman who 
takes a life-time to perform a work that another could 
have accomplished in an hour. While this course re- 
230 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 23I 

veals minds imbued with rank skepticism in relation to 
God and His being the Creator of the world, it also re- 
veals the strange anomaly of the most marvelous cre- 
dulity existing in the same minds. In their imagination 
there exists a thing called a primordial, which from 
formless dead matter brought into palpable existence all 
the wonders of the living, moving world. If it did, it 
must have possessed infinite wisdom ; and yet it had 
none. This thing, neither living nor dead, moved from 
nebulse and formed itself first, and then the whole solar 
system with its inhabitants. Such faith should put to 
the blush those who doubt God's having created the 
world in six days, or that such a Being existed capable 
of self-motion, which power they give their primordial. 
In- view of such fanciful scheming in support of the 
opposite theory, is the inference not inevitable that a 
being possessing the wisdom and power necessitated by 
the creation might as well have made it in six days as in 
any other period of time ? Supposing creation to have 
been the work of blind fatality, it could not have known 
when the work was finished, and must have worked on 
without ceasing, adding more atmospheres to the earth, 
more planets and suns to the solar system, not one of 
which could it admit without disturbing the whole. In 
a word, this fortuitous god w'ould have mixed up one 
world with another in endless confusion ; ten thousand 
things, having no connection with each other, and an- 
swering iio purpose, would be promiscuously thrown to- 
gether ; but in fact there is not known to be such a sub- 
stance or thing in existence. Suppose a steamship 
should have evolved from the concentrated forces and 
agencies of inanimate nature r would all its parts and 
machinery exactly adjust? On the contrary, no single 
piece of the engine would fit another ; not a plank, 
block^ or piece of tackling would adjust to another. 



232 COSMOGONY. 

The Evolution World-maker Enslaved by his Work. 

It is almost enough to make one blush on behalf of 
the evolutionists to institute such a supposition, and yet 
there is not a millionth part of the skill displayed in the 
construction of the steamship that there is involved in 
the simplest plant or insect in existence. Alas for evo- 
lution ! Seeing they could not restrain their god from 
continuous work, they have invented a notion to give 
him steady employment. This is the destruction and re- 
construction of his own works. The god of the evolu- 
tionists is like the man's cork leg, which was so light 
that when once set in m*otion it could never stop. 
Waiving the question of the intelligence or even the 
common-sense of this theory, the best possible view 
that can be taken of it is, that it is rank pantheism, con- 
founding the maker of the world with the world made, 
and presenting the absurdity that the maker made him- 
self : and thus we dispose of it. That the world was 
brought into existence in a very short space of time is 
further proved by the interdependence of its animate 
and inanimate departments. The wisdom thus mani- 
fested seems to demonstrate the fact that the universe' 
is one grand and perfect system, wonderfully adapted 
to accomplish the object designed. Among organic 
things there is not a species of vegetable or animal life, 
from man down to the lowest link in the chain, which is 
not calculated to administer either directly or indirectly 
to the health, comfort, and longevity of mankind. To 
suppose that the world existed for myriads of centuries, 
with everything it contains but man, is to charge its 
maker with folly, indifference to ^admiration, or with 
morbid imbeciHty ; for who but man can form the least 
idea of the existence of a God, or entertain a concep- 
tion of His handiwork ? 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 233 

To argue that man, in his final destiny, is the great 
object for which the world exists, pre-supposes the ex- 
treme purposelessness of its existence without him. Be- 
hold the world rolling in its splendor, with every 
phase of motion requisite to produce and perpetuate its 
vegetation, with its beautiful colors and sweet aroma, 
with none but a few wild beasts to gaze on their beauty 
or inhale their fragrance ! This reciprocal dependence 
is seen in the fact that almost every speciec of organic 
life furnishes food for another. If it be objected that 
some of the largest species of animals, such as the mas- 
todon, have become extinctj and man lives without 
seeming to miss them, the answer is : We are not sure 
that their loss has not conduced to shorten human life 
and impair physical power. In his primitive state these 
may have served man as beasts of burden, answering 
the place of steam-power, while the modern substitute 
has maimed and shortened millions of human lives ; and 
who can tell but that the unnatural excitement and 
quickening of the commerce of the age has thus re- 
sulted, which in ten thousand ways has cut and is cutting 
into the vitality of man ? 

Though we are not in possession of sufficient accu- 
rate data to enable us to trace the vital ratios between 
all living species and man, yet he is known to depend 
upon so many of these for his food, raiment, and com- 
fort, that we are left to infer that many, if not all others, 
only fill up less important links in the chain, and that in 
the absence of all other causes the extinction of any one 
species would finally result in the extinguishment of man 
himself. We are not left to conjecture, however, re- 
specting the interdepending departments of inanimate 
nature, which prove them and man to be simultaneous 
creations. 



234 COSMOGONY. 

How much of the Solar System it Takes to clothe and 
Feed Man. 

To the question, How much of the world and solar 
system is thus connected and depending ? we answer, in 
the first place, that as the sun's light is essential to vege- 
table life, the sun itself must have existed, not in a 
nascent state, but as perfect as now, before a plant could 
have lived. The existence of the sun necessitated the 
simultaneous existence of all the planets in the solar 
system whose reciprocal attractions and repulsions hold 
all in their orbits and the sun in their center. To sup- 
pose that one of these could have existed without the 
others would be as absurd as to suppose a balance hold- 
ing two weights in equal poise would remain in that po- 
sition after one was removed, or after a third had been 
thrown into one scale. To prove that light existed be- 
fore animal life, it is only necessary to state the fact that 
all fossils found in the strata of the surface of the globe 
are furnished with eyes — a superfluous appendage on the 
supposition that animals existed before light. This 
fact, however, harmonizes with the Mosaic statement 
that the first act of creation was the making of light. 
Water also must have been a perfect formation before 
the inhabitants it contains existed, as they could no 
more then than now have lived in a thick, chaotic mass ; 
nor in such a mixture of elements could their finny in- 
struments of locomotion have been of any use. Be- 
sides, the effluvia arising from this stagnant mass would 
have so impregnated the air as to have rendered animal 
life impossible. The poisoning of the air would also 
have followed had the waters of the sea remained mo- 
tionless ; and of themselves they had no power to move 
from a dead level. To produce these phenomena, 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 235 

therefore, the evaporating power of the sun must have 
been as great as it is now, and the atmosphere as per- 
fectly constituted as it is at the present day. 

This law of evaporation and precipitation causes all 
the rivers and streams upon the surface of the earth to 
flow, or even to exist ; otherwise the , deeper ocean- 
beds would have drained them dry. The expansion of 
the waters by the heat of the sun and moon was also 
a necessity, in order to produce and perpetuate their 
motion, seen in the ebbing and flowing of the tides, as 
well as its vertical currents or circles of hotter and 
colder water. The sun raises the temperature of every 
globule of water as far down as the rays penetrate, com- 
pelling the colder particles to rise by displacing the 
warmer ones, which sink to take their place, thus keep- 
ing in constant motion every drop of water in the great 
seas, and preventing the salt they contain from precipi- 
tating to the bottom and there remaining ; which cause 
alone would render the waters putrid, and thereby de- 
stroy the life of the animal, if not of the vegetable 
world. That vegetable and animal life came simultane- 
ously into existence is proved further by the fact of the 
absorption of the carbon of the atmosphere by vegeta- 
tion, and the oxygen by the animals, thus preserving its 
balance and rendering the existence of these grand de- 
partments of organic life possible, as well as consti- 
tuting the great law of atmospheric equilibrium. De- 
nude the earth of vegetation, and all animals would 
almost instantly become extinct. The animals continu- 
ing to absorb the oxygen of the air and rejecting its 
carbon, it would very soon become so highly carbonized 
that its inhalation would extinguish animal life. On the 
other hand, were all animals destroyed, vegetable life 
would cease by reason of the air becoming over- 



236 COSMOGONY. 

charged with oxygen. This great law of nature, grow- 
ing out of this endowment, demonstrates the fact that 
the atmosphere with its relative constituents of carbon 
and oxygen, must have been as perfect before plants and 
animals could have existed as it is at the present day. 

It is conceivable that the atmosphere, after having 
been created, might have preserved its chemical balance 
indefinitely, or as long as no substance or thing existed 
which would absorb one of its gases and reject all 
others ; but give plants, which do this very thing, a few 
years the start, and they v^ould so derange or poison the 
atmosphere for animals that, if then brought into exist- 
ence, they would immediately become extinct ; in fact, 
not an air-breathing animal could have begun to live, 
though possessing all the vital organs in a perfect state 
of development, as the first breath of too highly car- 
bonized air would not have set the machinery in mo- 
tion. 

The Carboniferous period never existed. 

It is also a fact that increased carbonization of the at- 
mosphere, though carbonic acid gas is the principal 
from which plants form their own food, would extin- 
guish that life, as no plant can live and reproduce itself 
in pure carbon ; nor can animals live in pure oxygen. 
We have in this natural law an argument demonstrating 
that what is called the Carboniferous Period, so fruitful 
of vegetable life, never existed, though to the decompo- 
sition of its prolific vegetation is ascribed the origin of 
the coal-beds. It is another fact of science that light is 
supported by oxygen, and that the light of the sun is 
essential to the healthy growth of plants ; but the rays 
of the sun, passing through a highly carbonized air, 
could not have produced the light demanded for this 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 237 

purpose : the light upon the surface of the earth would 
be no more than a' mere twilight. Fill a vessel with car- 
bonized air and put it in the only window in a house, 
and you would have an illustration of the gloom such 
an atmosphere would create. Now, as these different 
facts of nature cannot be harmonized with the sup- 
posed existence of the carboniferous period, the con- 
clusion is that it never did exist, and therefore all the 
supposed geological results, such as the formation of 
coal, etc., fall with the theory which assumed them. 

The geological interpretation of the Mosaic six days 
of creation, making them indefinite periods, puts the 
carbonic period before the oxygen or light period ; but 
if we turn to the account, we find that the first work of 
the first day, or period, was the creation of light. This 
account therefore harmonizes with the scientific necessi- 
ties of the work, and proves the views of the geologists 
to be erroneous. Thus we see that a perfect condition 
of the planetary system, including every phase of mo- 
tion they manifest, as well as the inanimate formations 
which now exist, was indispensable to the possible exist- 
ence of vegetable and animal life ; and as man is an 
animal, and as such is governed by the precise laws 
common to all animals, therefore an organized world 
adapted to other forms of life was equally adapted to 
the life of man. Hence the world was not made by 
parts, with long intervals between, but at once, and per- 
fect ; and the voice of universal nature joins that of the 
Bible in ascribing its origin to the acts of a single Mind, 
possessing the intelligence and power demanded by the 
work. Let it be conceded that the world was created 
with a degree of perfection capable of sustaining life — 
which implies a condition as high as that which now ex- 
ists, everything in maturity — and do we not see that all 



238 COSMOGONY. 

bore the marks of age ? For example, a tree was made 
a tree, with its ripe fruit ready to sustain the life of 
man, and its trunk would perhaps show thirty rings or 
grains, one of which is formed each year by the laws of 
nature or of natural growth. Understanding this law, 
a botanist would have pronounced the tree thirty years 
old on the day in which it was made. Adam was made 
a man, and not an infant to become a man ; the day after 
this he might have been pronounced thirty years old. 
The two great whales made on the fifth day might have 
been pronounced a hundred years old on the day 
of their creation. A certain stratum of granite was 
needed as the foundation of others. God endowed the 
atoms with affinities and adhesive attractions requisite 
to such formation, which sent them in rapid haste toward 
each other ; and in like manner was formed- by Almighty 
fiat, and in an hour's time, each stratum above. 

Suppose Sir Charles Lyell were now asked to give an 
estimate of the age of this stratum. Finding it to measure 
fifty thousand inches in thickness, and knowing similar 
rock to have been formed, according to natural laws, at 
the rate of one inch each year, he would have pro- 
nounced the whole stratum fifty thousand years old. 
Hence his blander. 

The Origijial Soil a Creation 

The voice of nature declares soil to be of very slow 
formation, as it results from the decomposition of vege- 
tation, mixed slightly, it may be, with pulverized rock. 
But in the formation of the original soil there were 
no vegetables to decompose ; it was therefore a crea- 
tion accomplished by the endowment of common mat- 
ter with the same peculiarities as those of decomposed 
vegetation, thus forming a soil in an hour which, as now, 



SrURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 239 

by the natural law of decomposition, would consume 
thousands of years in producing. Hence the original 
soil was as truly a creation as the plants set therein, each 
of which, from the most gigantic tree of the forest to 
the most delicate moss of the wildwood, is furnished 
with a separate department or apparatus for the propa- 
gation of its kind. 

That we may observe the skill here displayed, let us 
examine the organization of the moss. The plant con- 
sists of little bodies, forming, as it were, the spokes of a 
wheel, which are cases containing spores, or that part of 
flowerless plants which performs the function of seeds, 
having a very curious receptacle for the spores. When 
mature, these are scattered by a set of elastic spiral fila- 
ments which lie among them. When it begins to de- 
velop, the spore does not burst all at once and emit the 
seed it contains ; but its outer coat only is ruptured, 
and a long tube projects from its interior, within which 
new cells are growing, taking their origin from the mi- 
nute grains which the spore contained. These cells 
gradually increase into a leafy expansion, from the 
lower part of which root-fibers proceed, and in due time 
assume the appearance of the original plant, forming 
its own grains and fructifying itself as did its parent. An 
interesting circumstance touching one of these little 
plants is connected with Mungo Park, when in the inte- 
rior of Africa. After relating how he was cruelly 
stripped and robbed by bandits, he proceeds : " In this 
forlorn and almost helpless condition, when the robbers 
had left me I sat down for some time, looking around 
with amazement and terror. Whatever way I turned, 
nothing appeared but danger and difficulty. I found 
myself in the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of 
the rainy season, naked and alone, surrounded by savage 



240 COSMOGONY. 

animals, and men still more savage. I was five hundred 
miles from any European settlement. All these circum- 
stances crowded at once on my recollection, and I con- 
fess that my spirits began to fail me, considering my fate 
certain, and having no alternative but to lie down and 
perish. The influence of religion, however, aided and 
supported me. I reflected that no human prudence or 
foresight could possibly have averted my present suf- 
ferings. 

" I was indeed a stranger in a strange land, yet I was 
still under the protecting eye of that God who has con- 
descended to call Himself the stranger's friend. At 
this moment, painful as were my reflections, the extraor- 
dinary beauty of a small moss caught my eye [this is 
called Hooker's shining moss], and though the whole 
plant was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, 
I could not contemplate the tlelicate conformation of 
its roots, leaves, and fruit without admiration. Can 
that Being, thought I, who had planted, watered, and 
brought to perfection in this obscure part of the world, 
a thing which appears of so small importance, look 
with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of 
creatures formed after His own image ? Surely not '! 
Reflections like these would not allow me to despair. I 
started up, and disregarding both hunger and fatigue, 
traveled onward, assured that relief was at hand, and 
I was not disappointed." 

Had Mungo Park been an evolutionist, we venture 
the remark that his fate would have been inevitable. 
No such exalted views and aspirations are possible to 
their groveling, godless reflections. In this moss he 
would have only looked for irregularity of formation, 
and from this would have descended to other plants, less 
perfect, which produced it, until, arriving at one so sim- 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 241 

pie in its construction that nature or nothing might 
have brought it into existence, in his grossness he would 
have laid down and died. And who will say it would 
not have been a just retribution ? 

Reasoning from the relations and dependence of de- 
partmental nature, it seems to us there can be but one 
conclusion — namely, that the origination of everything 
that moves, varies, or reproduces was the direct and in- 
stantaneous act of an intelligent Creator. After the act 
of creation, the process of formation and transforma- 
tion, especially of inanimate things, though the indirect 
acts of God, may be very slow ; but as the destiny of 
man is the great object for which the world was made, 
and as he must be consulted and persuaded, but cannot 
be forced to enter upon this plane of destiny — which a 
sufficient number in a sufficient time will do — hence the 
necessary delay of a few thousand years in the accom- 
plishment of the work, involving as it does the re-crea- 
tion of the world into one of perfection and eternal 
duration, which also has been decreed to be a sudden 
work. 

The *' World to Come " Solves the Mystery of this. 

The prehistoric record of the reconstructed world is 
contained in the Bible, and is summed up in the last two 
chapters of the Book of Revelation — that is, revealed 
from other Scriptures. Having no idea of this plan of 
God, the evolutionists are necessarily bewildered in the 
interpretations of nature, because wholly engrossed with 
the present temporary and deranged condition of the 
Avorld, knowing not whence it came or for what purpose 
it continues. Hence we hear Sir Charles Lyell stating 
positively his theory to be that the existence of all 
things, organic and inanimate, originated in the same 



242 COSMOGONY. 

slow process which marks their continuance. Referring 
to former geologists who had assumed that sud'den and 
abrupt causes were necessary to produce the effects 
everywhere witnessed in nature, he says : '' Never was 
there dogma more calculated to foster indolence and to 
blunt the keen edge of curiosity than Are assumption of 
discordance between the ancient and existing causes of 
things." 

Thus does Lyell prefer speculative curiosity with its 
fanciful conclusions to the ancient Mosaic account of 
the commencement of things by creation, and adminis- 
ters this sharp rebuke to all geologists before him for 
not cutting loose from such restraint. Again he says : 
" So in geology, if we could assume that it is a part 
of the plan of nature to preserve, in every part of the 
globe, an unbroken series of monuments to commem- 
orate the vicissitudes of the organic creation, we might 
infer the sudden extirpation of species and the simulta- 
neous introduction of others, as often as two formations 
in contact are found to include dissimilar organic fos- 
sils ; but we must shut our eyes to the whole economy 
of existing causes, aqueous, igneous, and organic, if we 
fail to perceive that such is not the plan of nature." 
What an idea — that anything but an intelligent being 
can have a plan, and can work economically according 
to that plan ! What are such expressions but consum- 
mate nonsense ? In accordance with the plan of the 
living God, when the time arrives, we may not only in- 
fer, from the sudden creation of the world and the spe- 
cies inhabiting it, their sudden extirpation and repro- 
duction, but witness the bringing into existence of the 
second grand world, including every organic species, 
with immortal man at their head, which once came from 
the hand of the great Creator, and which he pronounced 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 243 

not only good, but very good. Let us add a reflection 
for the benefit of Sir Charles and his deluded followers. 
It is easy to infer, from the contempt in which they hold 
the works of the Creator — their detraction from His 
honor in ascribing them to other sources — that they will 
be unfit subjects for that coming world, where there 
shall be not one whose highest delight does not consist 
in ascribing all honor to Him who sat upon the throne, 
and repeating these words : " Thou art worthy, O Lord, 
to receive ^ory, and honor, and power ; for thou hast 
created all things^ and for thy pleasure they are and were 
created." (Rev. 4: 11). The coming of such a world 
is not only revealed in the Bible, but likewise in the very 
nature of man. If all the resources of the present 
world were possessed and exhausted by a single man, 
there is not in them that which would satisfactorily sup- 
ply his intellectual, moral, and religious needs even for 
a single day : there must therefore come one adequate 
to meet these demands, and this work involves his re- 
creation or resurrection, both of which terms are used 
synonymously in the Scriptures. The promise of this 
inheritance is the motive to induce men to obtain the 
necessary qualification for its possession. That this 
new creation of man is to be sudden, even in the 
"twinkling of an eye," implies that his first creation was 
also sudden. If evolution can raise a man from the 
dead after his dissolution into his elements, or can re- 
create him, then we might infer that he came thus origi- 
nally into existence. 

All Appearances of the World Prove its Existence Tem- 
porary. 

The monumental series of derangements in every de- 
partment of the organic and inorganic world corrobo- 



244 COSMOGONY. 

rates the written revelation that it was designed only for 
a temporary purpose ; and the wisdom it exhibits of its 
Creator forbids the idea of its annihilation, and there- 
fore indicates its re-creation into one of incorruptibility, 
and hence of eternal duration. Not to be able to dis- 
cern this grand destiny respecting man and the world, 
Lyell must have shut his eyes to the most philosophic 
and indisputable evidence, written and commemorated 
in every phase of dead and living nature. This, then, 
is the stupendous plan and economy of the 'God of na- 
ture, in the execution of which he must^work as rapidly 
as the possibilities admit. The fact that some species 
of animals have become extinct affords no evidence 
that new species have come into existence. Such a 
supposition implies the absurdity that because nature 
can destroy she can create ; that because her fires can 
consume a man to ashes, they can restore him again to 
life ; that because her seas can drown they can repro- 
duce ; that because her decomposing agencies can re- 
solve the diamond into carbon, they can reproduce the 
jewel. As a conclusion, Lyell says : " There never has 
been any interruption, from the remotest periods, of one 
uniform system of change in the animate and inanimate 
world." If this assertion is true, no room is left for 
God's having created the world, or for the universal 
deluge. It is much easier to put forth assumptions than 
to substantiate them by evidence. In one of the above 
extracts will be noticed the phrase, "If we could as- 
sume," but the writer concludes with the most positive 
assertion. Dr. T. M. Coan says : " Many computations 
have been made in respect to the actual antiquity of the 
various prehistoric remains that have been discovered. 
Sir Charles Lyell, one of the most cautious geologists, 
thinks that 100,000 years have been required to form the 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 245 

alluvial delta of the Mississippi, and it is a moderate 
estimate." Shutting their eyes to the fact that the sub- 
sidence of the great deluge, as the only adequate cause 
of accounting for the promiscuous distribution and un- 
equal configuration of the land and water on the surface 
of the earth — which was capable of producing more of 
this land wash, or drift, in the one hundred and fifty 
days of its duration than the ordinary deposit of rivers 
would have amounted to in thousands of years — how can 
modern geologists come to any other than extravagant 
and groundless conclusions ? [In reference to this 
Mississippi formation see page .] If Sir Charles 
Lyell is one of the most cautious of geologists, it would 
be more amusing than instructive to see some of the 
calculations of the more extravagant ; and before we 
get through it may apj)ear that one of these is Dr. Coan 
himself. Again he says : " Sir Charles Lyell himself 
thinks we may expect to find the remains of man in the 
Pliocene strata ; but there he draws the line and says, 
' that in Miocene time had some other rational being 
flourished, representing him, some signs of his existence 
could hardly have escaped unnoticed.' " The doctor 
goes on to say : " It is true that few of our existing 
species, or even genera, have as yet been found in Mio- 
cene strata ; but if man constitutes a separate family of 
mammalia, as he does in the opinion of the highest 
authorities [geological authorities, of course], according 
to all palseontological analogies, he must have had repre- 
sentatives in Miocene times. We need not, however, 
expect to find proofs m Europe ; for our nearest rela- 
tions in the animal kingdom [meaning the monkey tribes] 
are confined to hot, almost tropical climates, and it is in 
such countries that we are most likely to find the earli- 
est traces of the human race." 



246 COSMOGONY. 

If man or his ancestors evolved in one country, why 
not in every other country ? As ^ he lives equally in 
every climate, the speculation about temperature has 
nothing whatever to do with the question. That spec- 
ulation evolved naturally from the superficial brain of 
this doctor, who, it is evident, has not descended far 
enough from his acknowledged monkey ancestors to be 
profound. But he continues : " It will be remembered 
that side by side with the remains of Arctic animals 
have been found others indicating a warmer climate, 
such, for instance, as the hippopotamus. This fact, 
which has always hitherto been felt as a difficulty, is at 
once explained by the suggestion of a change every 
11,000 years, from a high to a low temperature, and 
vice versa. But a period of 11,000 years, long as it may 
appear to us, is very little from a geological point of 
view. We can thus understand how the remains of the 
hippopotamus and the bones of the musk-ox came to 
be found together in England and France. The very 
same geological conditions which fitted our valleys for 
the one, would, 'at an interval of 11,000 years, render 
them suitable for the other.'-' 

The finding of the remains of the musk-ox, which is 
an inhabitant of the country about Hudson Bay, and of 
the hippopotanms, a native of Africa, together in Eng- 
land and France, where, according to the climatic the- 
ory, neither of them belongs, presented not only a diffi- 
culty, as the doctor admits, but an insuperable barrier to 
geological calculation : the fact conflicts with their as- 
sumption as to the localization of species, both terri- 
torially and periodically. That is to say, one species 
existed at an earlier period than another, and became 
extinct before a different species evolved from it, but 
was still its representative ! As the changes in the work 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 247 

of evolution were infinitely slow and minute, how ab- 
surd to suppose that every one of one species should 
have been a native of an Arctic, and those of another 
of a Tropical climate ! Though the fact that these ani- 
mal remains were found together in England and France 
is conclusive against the theory of evolution, it is equally 
in favor of the universal acclimatization and simultane- 
ous existence of all living animals in the Eden World, 
but which were drowned by the flood and thus scattered 
over the earth's surface. 

D7\ Coa?i*s Calculations Erroneous. 
In order, however, to reconcile these facts with geol- 
ogy, Dr. Coan invents a theory and makes a suggestion. 
The invention is so simple that it is a wonder that it 
was not discovered before ; but better late than never. 
He says : " This time of 11,000 years may seem long." 
Though this period is almost twice the actual age of the 
world, yet we are glad it is so short, that we may test 
the theory by the chronology of the world. If, then., in 
11,000 years the temperature of the tropics became as 
cold as the arctics, and the arctics as hot as the tropics, 
then the musk-ox living in the arctic regions became 
extinct by the tropical regions moving north, and the 
hippopotamus perished with cold in the once sunny 
south. By another whirl of the evolution machine, the 
musk-ox was reproduced in the tropics and the hippo- 
potamus in the arctics ; and just as two of these ani- 
mals were passing each other on the journey they were 
caught in the temperate zone of England and France, 
and dying together, were found buried side by side. 
Behold to what a mere suggestion, coming from an evo- 
lutionist of the wisdom of the nineteenth century, may 
lead ; from it what marvelous things may evolve ! It 



248 Cosmogony. 

is, however, in keeping with the doctrine of natural se- 
lection, that the less produces the greater. 

The evolutionists are wiser than Moses, or even than 
the God of Moses ; they are, however, examples of that 
class described in the Bible, " who do not wish to re- 
tain God in their thoughts, whose minds become dark, 
seeking to be wise they become fools." If, as is alleged, 
in every period of 11,000 years there is a complete 
change of climate at the poles and at the equator, so 
that the coldest temperature of the frigid zones becomes 
that of the equator, let us suppose that the temperature 
of the arctic regions had been at its lowest degree and 
that of the equator at its highest 11,000 years ago. 
Five thousand five hundred years later there would have 
been, as a result, an equal temperature at these ex- 
tremes, and consequently over the whole earth. Sup- 
pose, still further, that the 11,000 years had begun 6,000 
years ago, the date of the creation : the result would 
have been that in the fourteenth century of the Christian 
era, or the year 5,500 of the world, the temperature at 
the poles and at the equator would have been equal ; 
and at the present time, five hundred years later, the 
tropics would be one-twentieth colder than the poles. 
This is the ridiculous conclusion of Dr. Coan's cele- 
brated " suggestion," which, when made, was regarded 
as of so much importance that it relieved the whole geo- 
logical fraternity from the musk-ox and hippopotamus 
embarrassment. 

The fact is, however, that there has never been a 
change of so much as a single degree of temperature 
between these sections of the globe. It is upon such 
speculations called facts that the spurious chronological 
geology and the godless so-called science of evolution 
are founded. Shutting their eyes to the philosophical 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 249 

and scientific necessities of the world's creation, how 
can modern geologists have their speculations appear in 
any better light ? It is said that Voltaire attacked and 
ridiculed the theories of Burnet, Woodward, and other 
physico-theological writers of his day, because they de- 
fended the account given in Genesis, by the geological 
phenomena of the world, of the creation and deluge. 
He said they were as fond of changes of scene on the 
face of the globe as were the populace of a play : every 
one of them destroys and renovates the earth after his 
own fashion, as Descartes, for instance ; for philosophers 
put themselves without ceremony in the place of God, 
and think to create a universe with a word. Lyell 
says that Voltaire ascribed the existence of shells found 
in the Alps to their having fallen from the hats of pil- 
grims coming from Syria, but that in his later writings 
he admitted the true origin of the shells of Turaine. 

That in the latter part of his life this bitter skeptic 
should have begun to deal respectfully with geology 
has its explanation in the fact that at that time it was 
passing from its legitimate sphere of teaching — exhibit- 
ing the harmony between the appearances of nature and 
Scripture statements concerning it — into that which re- 
jects the latter, and shuts God out of his universe. He 
began to see that if geology would thus undermine the 
confidence of men in the hated Bible, which all his life 
he had been openly and boldly endeavoring to do, why, 
then it was a good science, and therefore to be ap- 
proved. Hence it is not surprising that he should have 
become a convert to the teachings of geology. In our 
day the Voltaires have all turned geologists, as a more 
respectable mask under which to accomplish the desired 
work of destroying Christianity and the Bible. Were 
Voltaire himself now living, we doubt not he would be 



250 COSMOGONY. 

elected to a professorship of geology, perhaps in a theo- 
logical institution, or to fill the place of the late Profess- 
or Agassiz. 

When Geologists Began to be Skeptical. 

That geology was assuming a skeptical attitude in 
Voltaire's day is evident from the fact that Hutton, a 
Scotch geologist in 1788, said : "In the economy of the 
world, I can find no traces of a beginning, no prospect 
of an end." He thus, in a single sentence, set at 
naught the two great truths of the Bible — the history of 
the world's creation, and the prehistoric record of its 
end. The Huttonian theory taught the exclusion of all 
causes not belonging to the present order of nature, as 
he termed it. He did not understand nature sufificiently 
to see that the order or laws of nature originate noth- 
ing, but that they grow out of organizations, and the 
chemical and electrical endowment of matter, giving 
some of its particles an inclination to adhere, and others 
a disposition to resist, and that there is no cause in na- 
ture. 

Because this Scotch geologist did not see the neces- 
sity for a beginning to the world or an approaching end, 
does it follow that all men of all time are equally poor 
students of nature ? Because one man is blind, can no 
man see ? Who cannot see that at some time in the 
past, man must have made his first appearance upon 
this planet, and that if he began to be, he may cease to 
be .'' How can a reasonable man afhrm that the advent 
of man upon the earth was as ordinary an event as the 
reproduction of his kind ? A scientific view of the 
world exhibits the two great principles of wisdom and 
power : the first in the chemical endowment of the 
molecules with peculiar afftnities, attractions, and re- 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 25 1 

sistances, distributing them in the exact proportions re- 
quired to produce all the combinations of the organic 
and inorganic, animate and inanimate world, and the in- 
tellectual power to organize and combine the first pro- 
genitors. This was creation ; reproduction is the work of 
nature, or evolution. Another illustration of the erro- 
neous data for calculating the age of the world is the 
chasm worn by the Niagara river and falls. From Pro- 
fessor Huxley's Nashville address, printed in the Tribune 
Extra under the heading, " Testimony of the Rocks/' 
we take the following : " Take, for example, the cataract 
of Niagara. It is easy to see that the Niagara river has 
formed its own valley, has cut its own way back to where 
the falls are now for some six miles. The great cliff 
from which it tumbles is formed of two kinds of rock — 
hard rock at the top and soft rock underneath. The 
water undermines the soft rock, when the solid structure 
above falls over. Now, the rate at which that is going 
on has not yet been positively ascertained ; but we may 
be perfectly certain that the work of cutting back does 
not go on at the rate of a yard in a year. We have six 
miles of such cutting, which will give you ten thousand 
years for the cutting back of the Niagara, and it is 
much nearer the truth if I said four times that amount ?" 
In order to show the fallacy of this calculation, we 
must remember that one of the fundamental facts of 
geology and evolution is that this rock, as well as all the 
rocks of the earth, was once softer than clay ; and also 
that the irregular surface in the vicinity of Niagara, as 
well as everywhere else upon the earth, was produced 
by aqueous and igneous agency, which means simply 
the action of water and fire. The first wears away the 
surface, the second throws up the foundations. No one 
will question our right to assume that the upheaval and 



252 COSMOGONY. 

depression of the earth in the vicinity of Niagara oc- 
curred when this rock was rudimentary and soft. The 
very action which created the irregularity of the surface 
started the flow of the water, and over this rock it be- 
gan to pour, at a point six miles down the river, admit- 
ting Huxley's theory that it wore its way back. It must 
be evident, therefore, that more rock would be wasted 
in a single day perhaps than now, after it has be- 
come hard rock, than in ten thousand years, or in Hux- 
ley's longest period— 40,000 years — which he takes the 
liberty to change from the previous geological calcula- 
tion of 10,000 years. 

There is another fact which this chronological mathe- 
matician has not taken into the account. Examination 
of the rock along the banks of the river for these six 
miles shows that it lies at an inclination with the surface 
in the shape of a wedge, growing thinner and thinner as 
it recedes from the present falls, until, at the end of six 
miles, it runs out on the surface to an edge. Thus, at 
all events, we have seen it exhibited on geological 
charts. Here, then, at the thin edge, is the point at 
which Huxley says the water first began its work of cut- 
ting. Do we not see that the rock would at that time 
crumble away more perhaps in a single year than at its 
present rate in ten thousand years, and that between the 
two points there are no respectable grounds of compari- 
son ; and that the cutting grows less rapid as the present 
falls are approached ? 

Let us now inquire into the facts in relation to the 
manner of cutting out the bed of the river, and the 
time consumed in the work. When Lake Erie was 
formed — which we believe to have been at the time of 
and by means of the flood — its overflowing waters found 
outlet in the direction of Lake Ontario, whose basin it 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 253 

filled. No matter from what cause, the water found its 
lowest outlet at or near the pomt of the present falls. 
This was the beginning of Niagara river, which at first 
was a stream over which a man might have stepped. Of 
course the waters continued until they reached the lake 
below, whose basin was excavated by the same catastro- 
phe (the flood), the stream widening and deepening ac- 
cording to the hardness or softness of the earth over 
which it flowed, as well as the increasing or decreasing 
rapidity of its current. 

It is evident that had the hard rock, which begins with 
the " rapids " and ends in the vicinity of the falls, been 
laid the whole length of the river, and at the same de- 
clivity as that of the rapids, these (the rapids) would 
have continued the whole distance, and there would 
never have been any other falls. But now coming in 
contact with the soft rock or clay, the cut became per- 
pendicular, and increased according to the distance of 
the fall of the water ; while the whole bed of the river 
was cut out from the surface regularly and simultane- 
ously, beginning at Lake Erie, and not at Ontario, 
leaving the same general appearance which the six miles 
now bears, with the exception that the falls have been 
cut back probably a few rods. 

Anothei' Theory of the Age of Niagara 

If we would ascertain the true period consumed in 
cutting out the bed of Niagara river, we should reckon 
from the surface of its banks to the river's bed, taking 
that part where the water flows evenly, entirely avoiding 
the irregular vicinity of the falls. Suppose that in this 
part the chasm averages twenty-five feet in depth for 
the whole six miles, and that from the time the river 
began to flow it had cut its bed from the surface at the 



254 COSMOGONY. 

rate of one inch a year ; this would give 3,500 years, 
whereas about 4,400 years have elapsed since the flood. 
Besides this, there is the absurdity of Huxley's state- 
ment, that the falls have cut their own bed from six 
miles below, which implies that when the river first be- 
gan to flow there was no bed behind it, and therefore 
there could have been no river ; for a river cannot ex- 
ist without a bed having some depth below the two 
banks. That a river should begin to cut its bed at its 
mouth instead of its source is the height of absurdity. 
In view of this we ask, What becomes of Huxley's geo- 
logical period of 40,000 years ? Instead of calling his 
statement the "testimony of the rocks," it should have 
been called the testimony of the sand. 

Upon this evidence the Professor proceeds to pile up 
inference upon inference until he declares 40,000 years 
to be but an infinitesimal point of the time consumed in 
developing the whole phenomena of the globe. INTow 
mounted on his hobby and drawing his favorite weapon, 
in conclusion he gives Moses, as usual, this adroit stab : 
" I need not say that this view of the past history of the 
globe is a very different one from that which is com- 
monly taken. [Meaning the Mosaic record.] It is so 
different that it is absolutely impossible to effect any 
kind of community, any kind of parallel, far less any 
sort of reconciliation between these two ideas. The 
one is true ; the other is not." No, Mr. Huxley ! this 
array of words and pompous expression only betray the 
weakness of your conclusion ; and we assure you and 
your fellow-scientists that you must give us more plausi- 
ble theories and draw 'more logical conclusions from 
them, or others will do so to your discomfiture. In 
closing this brief criticism, we may remark that we know 
of no more solid so-called fact than that which this 



SPURIOUS DATA OF GEOLOGICAL CALCULATION. 255 

Niagara record affords in support of the assumption of 
the great age of the world, either in Sir Charles Lyell's 
"Principles of Geology," Darwin's " Descent of Man," 
Huxley's " Lectures in America," or Tyndall's " Frag- 
ments of Science," and none which may not as easily be 
shown to be irreconcilable with others supporting the 
same hypothesis. Each is in contradiction alike of all 
science, all philosophy, and all natural history, whether 
written in the Book of Nature or in the Bible. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Darwin's sophistry exposed. 

"The question," says Mr. Darwin, "whether man- 
kind consists of one or several species has, of late 
years, been much agitated by anthropologists, who are 
divided into two schools of monogenists and polygenists. 
Those who do not admit of the principle of evolution 
must look at species either as separate creations or as in 
some manner distinct entities ; and they must decide 
what forms to rank as species by the analogy of other 
organic beings which are commonly thus received. It 
is a hopeless endeavor to decide this point on sound 
grounds until some definition of the term ' species ' is 
generally accepted ; and the definition must not include 
an element which cannot possibly be ascertained, such 
as an act of creation." It is evident from this that Mr. 
Darwin feels himself to be unable to combat a definition 
of species which is claimed to have originated in an act 
of creation ; and the reason is, if man was created, he 
did not evolve ; and if it can be shown that he did 
evolve, that will settle the question. That he was cre- 
ated is rendered an absolute necessity by all the analo- 
gies of organic being, as we have shown, and shall 
demonstrate by more than a score of syllogisms. By 
this adroit attempt at intimidation we are to be pre- 
vented from defining what - species means, unless we 
adopt Darwin's dictum that it does not mean an act of 
creation. This is the very thing to be proved, and of 
256 



DARWIN S SOPHISTRY EXPOSED. 257 

course it can only be done by producing an array of 
facts and other conclusive evidence showing that inor- 
ganic things caused organizations to exist, dead things 
produced living ones, and out of unintelligent things 
came those of intelligence — the very mention of which 
is an expression of the grossest absurdity. But this is 
one of those iiard necessities with which Darwinism is 
environed, and upon which it depends for its existence. 
In effect, Mr. Darwin says : Let me shut God out of 
creation and from the controversy, and my chances 
are as good as yours to show how things originated. In 
such a case indeed, neither could show anything of the 
kind. He thus begs the whole question to begin with. 
Is it not marvelous, therefore, that such men as Sir Charles 
Lyell, Tyndall, and Huxley should adopt his theories, 
and declare, as Tyndall did in his Belfast speech, " that 
the evidence in proof of the modification of species 
furnished by Mr. Darwin was overwhelming ; " by which 
he means that one species becomes another by animal 
descent, and hence that all living things came from a 
single primordial form, and that form from lifeless inor- 
ganic matter. 

The definition of the term " species," which the natural 
relation of living things and the physiological laws of 
organic life compel us to give is, that it signifies those 
animals or plants which will not reproduce by crossing 
with others ; and by the word " race " is meant the vari- 
eties of species which, without regard to these differ- 
ences, will constantly reproduce offspring. So univers- 
ally do the living organisms of the world vindicate the 
correctness of these definitions that no room is left for 
Darwin's insinuation of difficulty. Every one knows 
that the terms " species " and " race " have been used 
interchangeably to designate the whole family of man- 



258 COSMOGONY. 

kind as descended from Adam ; but since the theory of 
evolution has been promulgated, it has become neces- 
sary, in order to seem to furnish proof in its favor, to 
define them both to mean "race," and either to discard 
the word species altogether, or to employ it in the same 
sense as signifying all the plants and animals of the 
world. 

That Mr. Darwin avoids the true definition of these 
terms is manifest by his assumption that sound defini- 
tions will and must be generally accepted ; and that 
their acceptance will prove them to be correct. How 
does this look in the historic light of scientific discovery, 
which shows that whenever anew truth has been brought 
out and defined, it has been generally rejecJLed, and that, 
too, by the very men who were the foremost advocates 
of the science of which it claimed to be a part ? No, 
Mr. Darwin ! a sound definition depends solely upon the 
question whether it is a true definition, and not in the 
least upon the fact whether any man or number of men 
will receive or reject it ; and we shall show that the facts 
and laws of generated organic life render it an absolute 
necessity that the evolutionists must accept the defini- 
tion herein maintained, though it prove fatal to their 
theory. 

The difficulty under which the polygenists labor is 
seen by the following : " Mr. Darwin says sub-species is 
a term some naturalists have lately employed to desig- 
nate forms which possess many of the characteristics of 
species. Now, if we reflect on the weighty arguments 
above given for raising the races of man to the dignity 
of species [here is the idea that races become species], 
and the insuperable difficulties on the other side in de- 
fining them [there are not only no insuperable difficul- 
ties, but none at all in definitions we are about to give], 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 259 

the term * sub-species ' might here be used with much 
propriety, but from long habit the term ' race ' will per- 
haps always be employed." Descent of INIan, p. 216. 

Darwin begs the QiLestion. 

It is said again, as a conclusion : " Finally, the natur- 
alists might argue that the natural fertility of all races 
has not yet been fully proved ; and even if it had, it 
would not be an absolute proof of their specific identity." 
Here it is evidently implied that if the natural fertility 
of all races, as he calls them, was a fact, it would almost 
amount to demonstration of the specific identity of all 
species, or that each had its original progenitor, and 
therefore a separate creation. But if this has not been 
positively proved, then Mr. Darwin's book would con- 
tain the exception ; for no one can be acquainted with 
the works of this author without being convinced that 
he has ransacked all nature, history, and fable to obtain 
evidence in defense of his theory ; and the only thing 
his labored effort does contain having the least show of 
evidence, after sifting it of sophistry, in proof of the in- 
fertility of species, is, that there are individuals among 
all species which are sterile. This, fact, however, only 
proves that physical derangement exists in the genera ■ 
tive organs of such individuals. Now if fertility is a 
universal fact among all the races of the human family, 
which all efforts at crossing have demonstrated, what is 
Mr. Darwin's assertion to the contrary worth ? We put 
it with his dictation as to what kind of a definition we 
must or must not give to " species." 

In opposition to this arrogance we have not the least 
hesitation in affirming that there never was an abstract 
idea so well ascertained and so strongly enforced by 
philosophic necessity and the analogies of nature, as that 



26o COSMOGONV. 

plants and animals required acts of creation to bring 
them into existence, and that each species had its specific 
progenitor or progenitors at that creation. This posi- 
tion is also vindicated by the failure of thousands of 
efforts to produce a new species by crossing which 
would persist — made, too, by the most celebrated nat- 
uralists, who believed in its possibility. Their experience 
settled the question until Darwin's speculations came 
out. Such cross-breeds as those produced the pheas- 
ant and hen ; but if their progeny are permanent, the 
fact only proves that these and similar examples are 
only different races of the same original species, and 
that crossing brings them back to their original specific 
identity — it is only undoing what peculiar environment 
did. 

As every branch of natural science is emplo5^ed by the 
evolutionists to prove that organic existence originated 
without the aid of an intelligent being, this theory of the 
identity of species is no exception. Hence if we would 
successfully expose the futility of their efforts we must 
make use of the same arguments to prove the existence 
and intervention of such a being, without whom the 
universal voice of nature proclaims that there never 
would have been a beginning or a succession. Suppose 
no name had been given to this creator — so certainly re- 
vealed in nature, and in man especially as a part of na- 
ture — still the conception would have been as definite 
and profound that such a living, personal, intelligent be- 
ing existed, as abstract and before her works, as that the 
works of man prove his abstract, intelligent, and prior 
existence. We venture the remark that there never was 
a human being of ordinary intelligence, who had arrived 
at maturity, whether heathen or Christian, who had not 
by his own intuition or reasoning received this definite 
conception. 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 261 

There never was a Nahtral Atheist or Evolutionist. 

It therefore follows that there never was a natural 
atheist or evolutionist, the latter being still more unnat- 
ural and absurd than the former ; for, unphilosophic as 
is the notion of an eternal succession of the works in 
nature, the notion that there was a beginning without a 
creation is still more so. To prepare the mind to admit 
either of these requires a long process of mental training, 
in which convictions are stifled, reason outraged, and 
pride of opinion and self-indulgence gratified. It is an 
undeniable fact that every sensible child, beholding the 
surrounding objects of nature, learns very early that 
human skill is inadequate to the task of producing 
them. Perhaps the first lesson has been learned from 
efforts to draw pictures of flowers, birds, or animals. 
Here skill is brought into requisition ; but the great dif- 
ference apparent between the drawings and the things 
themselves forces upon him the conviction that it requires 
a hand vastly more skilled than his even to make good 
resemblances ; then how much greater would the failure 
have appeared had the attempt been to make the living 
things themselves ? Even if the parent undertook the 
work, still the child discerns a marked difference in the 
result. Now, while laboring with this conception, what 
would shock this child more than to be told that a thing 
far less skilled than himself or his parent made the flower, 
bird, and animal themselves, while they, though skillful 
and intelligent creatures, had failed even to make satis- 
factory pictures of them ? 

Take another example. A young farmer has learned 
something about hens* eggs and chickens. He has found 
out that the hen desires something of a start in a nest, 
as an inducement to lay her eggs in it, and he makes a 



262 COSMOGONY. 

chalk egg for the purpose. Of course it is not an egg 
because it resembles one ; but even this rude effort has 
exhausted his skill in organic construction. It is, how- 
ever, of sufficient similarity to deceive the hen, simply 
because she is a hen, and has not the intelligence of the 
farmer. He has also learned that chickens are hatched 
from eggs simply by the hen sitting on them a sufficient 
length of time, and has ascertained that even this is not 
absolutely necessary ; but that hatching will follow if 
the eggs are otherwise exposed to the same temperature 
for the same length of time. 

With the knowledge of these facts, what other con- 
clusion could the farmer arrive at than that the hen is a 
natural machine, constructed by some Being capable of 
performing the work, for the manufacture of eggs, and 
the eggs involving the embryos for evolving chickens — 
just as a saw-mill is made for the manufacture of boards 
from logs, or a grist-mill for making flour from grain ; 
and that it was just as necessary that the hen-machine 
should have been perfectly organized in order to turn 
out her work, as that the mills should have been perfect 
before they were capable of doing theirs ? He had also 
observed that this result was not owing to the quality of 
food fed to the hen, for the same fed. to hogs — hog-ma- 
chines, if you please — would be turned into pigs. 

The hen had an instinctive desire inclining her to sit 
on the eggs. This desire was not acquired by cultiva- 
tion or imitation, hence it was not "natural selection," 
but was involved in her organization ; and for the grati- 
fication of which she would patiently endure confinement 
and loss of flesh while sitting on the eggs for three weeks 
and then assiduously begin the task of bringing up a 
large brood of chickens. Thus, in obedience to this law 
of nature, the hen was induced while living to reproduce 



263 

her kind. The farmer's reflections upon these wonder- 
ful facts would lead him to the conclusion that nothing 
less than infinite intelligence was necessary to so mix the 
common material of which all animals are composed 
that this or a similar feeling would be an inherent func- 
tion, without which perhaps no creature would willingly 
endure the hardship and deprivation necessary to raise 
up future generations ; and that without this compensa- 
tory gratification all races and species of animals would 
have become extinct at the death of the first progenitors, 
though each were perfect in every other respect. 

Suppose, still further, that the farmer had often tried 
the experiment of so mixing different kinds of eggs — those 
of hens, turkeys, geese, etc, — setting them under each other 
in order to produce a new species of fowl, a half-breed — 
one between a hen and a turkey, looking as much like the 
one as the other — that the egg this new creature laid — if 
it laid any — were also as perfect a hybrid in form and size 
as itself, and that the new fowl was just as fertile in laying 
eggs and hatching chickens as were any of the uncrossed 
hens and turkeys : with these facts before him he might 
have concluded that all kinds of fowls had a common pro- 
genitor, but instead of its being simple, he would have 
concluded that it had involved in its -organization the 
embryos of all the varieties of fowl living upon the earth, 
and consequently that to make it required infinitely more 
skill than to make any one of the kinds evolved from it. 
Instead of being taught the lesson of the evolutionists, 
that this first progenitor was the lowest and simplest in 
the scale of organic being, he would learn that it must 
necessarily have been the very highest of all, involving 
in its structure all the peculiarities of feature, size and 
color of all the fowls that had ever existed ; and if it 
was the egg that was first, it was such a marvel of me- 



264 COSMOGONY. 

chanical skill that none but a being of infinite wisdom 
and power could have brought it into existence. 

The Wo7iders of Incitbation. 

The following observations on the changes that occur 
from hour to hour during the incubation of the hen's 
egg are from " Stearm's Reflections : " '' The hen has 
scarcely sat on her eggs twelve hours before some linea- 
ments of the head and body of the chicken appear. 
The heart may be seen to beat at the end of the second 
day. It has at that time somewhat the form of a horse- 
shoe, but no blood yet appears. At the end of two days 
two vessels of blood are to be distinguished, the pulsa- 
tions of which are visible ; one of these is the left ven- 
tricle, and the other the root of the great artery. At 
the fiftieth hour one auricle of the heart appears, re- 
sembling a noose folded down upon itself. The beating 
of the heart is first discovered at the auricle, and after- 
ward in the ventricle. At the end of seventy hours the 
wings are distinguishable, and on the head two bubbles 
for the brain : one for the fore and the other for the hind 
part of the head. Toward the end of the fourth day 
the two auricles already visible draw nearer to the heart. 
The liver appears the fifth. At the end of seven days 
the lungs and stomach become visible, and four hours 
afterward the intestines, bones, and upper jaw. 

" At the one hundred and forty-fourth hour the two 
ventricles are visible, and two drops of blood instead of 
the single one which was seen before. On the seventh 
day also the brain begins to have some consistency. 
At the two hundred and nineteenth hour of incubation 
the bill opens, and the flesh appears on the breast. In 
four hours more the ribs appear, forming from the back, 
and the gall-bladder becomes visible. The bill becomes 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 265 

green at the end of two hundred and thirty-six hours ; 
and if the chicken be taken out of its covering, it moves 
itself. At the two hundred and sixteenth hour the eyes 
appear. At the two hundred and eighty-eighth hour the 
ribs are perfect. At the three hundred and thirty-first 
hour the spleen draws near the stomach, and the lungs 
to the chest. At the end of three hundred and fifty- 
nine hours the bill frequently opens and shuts, and at 
the end of the eighteenth day the first cry of the chicken 
is heard. It now gets more strength and grows continu- 
ally, till at length it is able to set itself free from its con- 
finement." 

What a loose play of the imagination must it be to see 
in an operation of blind, unknowing matter, the produc- 
tion of such a world of wonder as is thus disclosed, and 
which was involved in the organized egg and in the hen 
that produced it ; and how would the astonishment be 
increased if the hen or egg should have given birth to a 
creature of more complication and superior organization 
to itself — as, for instance, a man from a monkey ! Let 
us suppose still further that the farmer had learned by 
his experiments that a certain kind of eggs invariably 
produced a certain kind of fowl. He could differentiate 
his chickens in size and color by always setting the fowls 
upon the largest eggs, or upon those laid by certain col- 
ored hens ; but whether large, small, white, black, or 
speckled, each was of the same truly identical kind of 
fowl as though none of these changes had been effected 
— just as dogs are dogs, whether large, small, white, 
black, or spotted. 

Extreme Changes in Organic Things Sudden. 

He would also have learned that these changes did 
not come by such slow and nice shades that those of a 



266 COSMOGONY. 

single generation would not be perceptible, as is claimed 
for evolution, but were wide and palpable, as often in a 
single season the greatest extremes may be reached, and 
in a few generations the largest fowl produced, and 
yet at the same time the farmer's hens were all white, 
black, or spotted, just as he desired to have them. 

By further experimenting he would have found that a 
certain kind of seed would produce a certain kind of 
fruit-tree ; but that it was necessary to plant the seed in 
soil, and also where it would be exposed to the light and 
heat of the sun, and that the soil must be made moist. 
The man possessed some skill, but he knew there was 
none in the seed ; for skill implies volition, and this im- 
plies self-motion, etc. Neither is there skill in the sun- 
light ; the sun shines by necessity, and of necessity the 
rain falls ; and these elements, the farmer soori learns, 
are the principal constituents of the law of vegetable 
growth. But even the combination has no skill, and 
knows nothing of the inherent power it possesses, or 
whence it was derived. The tree, however, grew to ma- 
turity — that is, if the seed was perfect, as an imperfect 
seed will not produce a perfect tree, or one that will re- 
produce its kind. From these evidences of the incompe- 
tency of nature the farmer rightly concludes that the 
whole phenomena of producing the original plants or 
seed were supernatural work, and therefore that of a 
great Creator. He also learns an important truth of 
natural science, enabling him thereafter to distinguish 
between creation and growth, or involution and evolu- 
tion. The first possessed the laws inhering in the ma- 
terial elements combined in the seed, and the last 
evolved the tree from the seed, with all its susceptibili- 
ties, including that of the reproduction of seed after its 
kind. 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 267 

It is unquestionably good for the cause of truth that 
Messrs. Darwin, Tyndall, and Huxley have assumed ex- 
treme ground in this controversy, seeking to account for 
the coming into existence of the original "primordial 
form " by the simple play of material atoms independent 
of a creator. For a number of years naturalists have 
been diverging in this direction, some claiming more and 
some fewer representative species. Their attitude has 
challenged a close and profound investigation into the 
natural history and peculiarities of man, and this inves- 
tigation has led us directly to the Mosaic account, which 
gives a single pair as the progenitors of each animal 
species, as the scientific and only solution of the prob- 
lem. Here science, fact, and philosophy harmoniously 
blend in a conclusion, not only at variance with the the- 
ory of evolution, but absolutely repugnant to it. Now, 
suppose it were impossible, with our present light (which 
we do not admit), to show that all the apparent phenom- 
ena of localized shells and fossils could be harmonized 
with a simultaneous, sudden, and perfect creation: would 
not this overwhelming evidence forever establish the fact 
that such was the necessity notwithstanding ? These 
supposed facts, or their environments, depend upon 
many contingencies of localization, indicating no uni- 
form scientific principle of deposit, such as that the 
growth of plants or animals admit of extremely different 
interpretations, as increased light has done in thousands 
of similar instances in the past. Hence it is idle to 
assume that these shells and fossils teach a chronology 
of the organic world at all, much less one which is in 
conflict with that given by the God of Scripture. 
If, therefore, the human species are a unit, having sprung 
from a single pair, and yet manifest great variety in its 
races, does it not establish the fact that all the lower an- 
imals and vegetables are distinct species — units also ? 



268 COSMOGONY. 

If we make a comparison between man and those 
animals which in general form approach man the nearest, 
physiology and anatomy show his- organs to be exactly 
like theirs, almost muscle by muscle and nerve by nerve, 
and performing exactly the same functions in each. 
Surgical experiments are repeatedly performed upon the 
lower animals in order to qualify practitioners for human 
surgery, and by these means the functions of human or- 
gans have been discovered. Physicians also have ex- 
perimented with alleged medicinal substances upon the 
lower animals, and thus ascertained their effect upon 
man. But if we would obtain all the instruction anthro- 
pology affords, plants as well as animals must be investi- 
gated, because the two are subject to the laws of organic 
life ; and whatever questions relating to organic phenom- 
ena are proposed, the answer to the one gives the an- 
swer to the other. As it is of the greatest importance 
that we shall have a proper apprehension of what con- 
stitutes the exact difference between species and race, 
nothing vague or conjectural should be admitted in the 
discussion, and as we have dwelt somewhat at length 
upon the natural laws here involved, we propose now to 
introduce a few facts by way of illustration. 

History of the Coffee Plant. 

We begin by quoting from a lecture by A. De Quatre- 
fages, delivered in Paris a few years since. The first 
example is that of the coft'ee plant. 

" The use of coffee spread early and with great rapid- 
ity in the East, but it penetrated Europe much slower, 
being first introduced and used in Marseilles, France, 
and first drank in Paris in 1667. The seeds furnished 
on the occasion were brought in a small quantity by a 
French traveler named Thevenot. Two years after- 
ward, Solomon Ago, ambassador of the Sublime Porte in 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 269 

the time of Louis XIV., induced the courtesans of that 
king to taste it. It was not, however, until the eighteenth 
century that it began to be generally used in France. 
So we see that coffee has not been very long in circula- 
tion, as it is scarcely a century and a half since it became 
an article of general consumption by the people of 
Europe. During many of these years Europe remained 
tributary to Arabia for this commodity. Indeed, all the 
coffee consumed in Europe came from Arabia, particu- 
larly from Mocha. 

" Toward the commencement of the eighteenth cen- 
tury the Dutch attempted with success to import it into 
Batavia, one of their colonies in the Indian Archipelago. 
From Batavia some stalks were taken to Holland and 
put in a hot-house , where they succeeded equally well. 
One of these stalks was brought to France about the 
year 17 10, and was placed in the Garden of Plants. It 
also prospered, giving birth to a certain number of stalks. 
In 1725, an officer of the French navy, Captain Des- 
clieux, thought that since Holland had cultivated coffee 
at Batavia, he might also acclimate it in our colonies of 
the Gulf of Mexico. When embarking for Martinique, 
he took from the Garden of Plants three stalks of coffee 
and carried them with him. 

" By reason of contrary winds the voyage was long and 
difficult, and the supply of water being insufficient, it 
was necessary to put the crew on rations. Captain Des- 
clieux, having with others but a small quantity of water 
to drink each day, divided it with his coffee plants. 
Notwithstanding all this care, two of them died on the 
passage. On the arrival this one was put at once into 
the earth, and it prospered so well that from it have de- 
scended all the coffee-trees now spread over the Antilles 
and tropical America. 

" Twenty years after this our western colonies exported 
millions of pounds of coffee. Here we see the coffee- 
tree starting from Africa, reaching the extremity of Asia 
on the east and America on the west. Hence it has 
nearly traveled round the world. In this voyage coffee 
has become modified. Passing by the tree, of which we 
know but little, in this report let us consider the seed 



270 COSMOGONY. 

No one wo aid confound Mocha with Bourbon, or Rio 
Janeiro with Martinique. Each of these seeds possesses 
peculiar forms, properties, and aroma, giving the certifi- 
cate of its birth. Now, whence came these changes ? 
these peculiar phenomena ? The answer is, They came 
from differences of temperature, climate, culture, and 
soil. This shows that if we transport plants to consid- 
erable distances, where they encounter these differences, 
we obtain different races. But this is the limit of 
change. Coffee, in all its modifications, remains sub- 
stantially identical." None of these kinds have ever 
approximated beans or Indian corn, or any other seed. 
Neither would any of the countries to which the coffee 
had been transplanted ever have produced it but for the 
fact of the transportation ; and this proves that all the 
plants and coffee-seeds of all the world and of all time 
originated from a single seed or plant, whichever was 
created first. The same laws apply to all other plants 
and seeds, which demonstrates the fact that each species 
not only started from a single plant, but equally from a 
single territorial center of the globe. These facts also 
prove that organic productions do not move in an un- 
broken circle, but in a line of succession, one generation 
following another. Therefore, there was a first ; and if 
you begin at the last and count backward you must ar- 
rive at the first. 

If Evolution were true, all Plants would be produced in 
all Countries. 

If the theory of evolution is the true interpretation of 
the organic life of the world, we should have as a con- 
sequence the fact that every island and country on the 
face of the earth would have equally produced and 
possessed every species of plants and animals susceptible 
of living in those particular parts of the world. The 
original plant would just as certainly have evolved, and 
in the same time, from no plant or seed, in one country 
as in another, the laws of nature, to whose genius the 



DARWIN S SOPHISTRY EXPOSED. 2)1 

work is attributed, being not only uniform but universal 
in their operation. This result being contrary to the 
fact of universal organic distribution, proves evolution 
iTot to be true, and therefore not science. No matter 
what may be the supposed import of any local fossiliza- 
tions, if the inferences drawn from them palpably 
conflict with the positive knowledge of organic distribu- 
tion, then they are error and not science. But we 
introduce another example from the same source, and 
from the animal kingdom — the turkey. 

" This bird is wild in America, and presents many 
characteristics which distinguish it from the domesticated 
turkeys of other countries. The wild turkey is very 
beautiful, and of a deep brown color, very iridescent, 
presenting reflections of blue, copper, and gold, which 
make it truly ornamental. It was because of its fine 
plumage that it was first introduced into France. In the 
beginning no one thought of the turkey as food ; and 
the first turkey served at table was in 1570, at the wed- 
ding of Charles IX. As soon as the turkey was tasted 
it was found to be too good merely to look at, and it 
passed from the park to the poultry-yard, from thence 
to the farm, and from one farm to another, east and west, 
north and south, till at present on almost every farm 
turkeys are raised and have become an object of con- 
siderable commerce ; but in going^from farm to farm 
this bird has encountered different conditions of exist- 
ence — of temperature and nourishment, and never the 
primitive conditions it had in America. As a con- 
sequence the turkey, like the coffee, has varied, so that 
to-day not a turkey in France closely resembles the wild 
stock ; generally it has become much smaller. Some 
have become fawn-colored, others more or less white, 
gray, or fawn-color. In a word, almost all the localities 
to which turkeys have been taken have given birth to 
new varieties, which from the species have thus been 
transformed into races. 

" Now, in spite of these marked changes between each 
other and their first parents in America, are the French 



272 COSMOGONY. 

turkeys any less the children of the wild turkeys of 
America ? or are they less brothers and sisters ? or have 
they ceased to be parts of the same species ? 

" What is true of the turkey is also true of the rabbit. 
The wild rabbit lives in the downs and woods, and 
resembles but little the domestic rabbit. These are both 
large and small, have short, black, white, yellow, and 
gray hair, are spotted and of uniform color. In a word, 
this species comprehends a great number of races ; but 
all constituting one and the same species with the wild 
stock." 

From these facts, which might be multiplied indefi- 
nitely, we conclude that if a pair of rabbits were left in 
a place where they would encounter no enemies, in a few 
years they would fill it with descendants, and eventually 
would overrun the whole country, or continent, in like 
manner as we have seen a single stalk of coffee so 
multiplied as to produce all the coffee since raised in 
America. The wild rabbits and their captive descend- 
ants, the wild turkeys and their domestic offspring, 
must then be considered as equally the descendants 
each of a single primitive pair. Nor does it in the least 
complicate the question because we do not know the 
history of the introduction of the wild stock into any 
country where their descendants dwell. These and 
other equally well known examples lead to no other 
conclusion than that all the plants and all the animals of 
the world, wherever distributed, have obeyed the same 
law, originated in a common geographical center, and 
hence in the " Garden eastward in Eden " (the eastern 
part of the Eden world). No other intelligent con- 
clusion can be drawn from the facts thus established. 

Let us now inquire as to how these facts throw light 
upon the question of the unity of the human species. 
The peculiar features they manifest are very marked. 
We do not know how or when mankind's progenitors 



DARWIN^S SOPHISTRY EXPOSED. 273 

became inhabitants of their several localities ; but as 
man is an organized being, he obeys the laws governing 
all organized beings, and therefore the law of intermix- 
ture or crossing. As the basis of our argument, let us 
take the types which seem most diverse, exhibiting the 
most marked differences — the white man and the negro. 
If these types really constitute distinct species, then their 
union must bear the stamp we have found to character- 
ize the crossing or union of animals of different species 
— to wit, in the great majority of cases, that of infertil- 
ity ; in the remainder, slight fertility, and this soon dis- 
appearing, with the formation of no intermediate groups. 
But if these extremes are races of the same species, their 
union will be fertile, and the fertility continue indefi- 
nitely, and numerous intermediate groups will be formed, 
with peculiarities so modified that if representatives of 
all were placed side by side it would be impossible to 
distinguish between any two standing nearest each 
other. 

Now, what are the facts ? It is about three centuries 
since the white man made the conquest of the world. 
Wherever he has gone he has found groups of human 
beings which very much differ Trom himself, and every- 
where he has married with them ; and the unions have 
not only proved fertile, but sometimes more fruitful than 
the indigenous people themselves. To show the rapidi- 
ty with which mixed races multiply, bear in mind the 
fact that it is only about twelve generations since the 
European race overspread the world, and it is already 
estimated that one-seventeenth of the population of the 
globe are mixtures. In some states of South America, 
where the emigration of the whites was earlier, one- 
fourth of the population is cross-bred ; and in some 
states and sections they constitute more than one-half. 



274 COSMOGONY. 

It is evident from these facts of universal observation 
and experience, as well as the logical conclusions of 
science, that there exists but one species of man. These 
races now exist at the antipodes in America, Polynesia, 
and elsewhere. 

The changes which do not affect offspringing, and 
which may therefore be transmitted, are those we have 
mentioned, and also extend to such peculiarities as the 
size of feet, length of legs, arms, etc., which in a greater 
or less de2:ree are common to different nations ; indeed, 
traces of the greatest extremes of these peculiarities may 
be found in every nation, and even in a single family. 
These have their explanation in temperature, mental 
impression, exposure, habit, diet, taste, and the consis- 
tency and chemical peculiarities of soil. 

PJiilosophy of peculiar hitman featwes. 

The flat nose of the African and his large nostrils result 
from the necessity of inhaling larger draughts of tropi- 
cal air to produce the same degree of vitality, because 
of its greater expansion, the increased exercise giving 
the nostrils increased width and a larger nose. The 
curling of the African's hair, though universal on his 
continent, is common in every country of the globe. 
Perhaps this fact has its scientific solution in the other 
fact that the curls deflect the rays of the tropical sun, 
thus preventing their more severe penetration into the 
brain. In the transmission of light, it is a law that every 
intervening object with which a ray comes in contact is 
bent and diverted in another direction. Another fact 
illustrative of this phenomenon is that heat curls hair of 
every kind, and the knotted hair provided by nature for 
the protection of the brain from injury by the rays of a 
tropical sun is a created endowment of adaptation or 



DARWIN S SOPHISTRY EXPOSED. 275 

acclimation everywhere prevalent, and which in time by 
degrees becomes the inheritance of offspring. 

The peculiar thickness of the skull of the African 
affords another means of protection to the brain. In a 
tropical climate people would naturally cease to wear 
coverings on their head, which is in fact their general 
practice ; continual exposure would increase the thick- 
ness of the skull by giving it more work to do in resisting 
the attack of the atmospheric elements, just as the soles 
of the feet become covered with thicker skin if shoes are 
not worn, or that of the hands by the handling of hard 
and heavy objects. Speaking of the color of the 
African's skin, Dr. Livingstone, the great African ex- 
plorer, says : " When the English people think about 
Africa, they imagine that all the Africans are like the 
specimens we have in front of the tobacconist shops. 
This is not the case at all. That is the real negro, and 
is only to be found in the lowest of the population. The 
people generally are not altogether black. Many of 
them are of olive color or of the color of coffee and 
milk ; and usually, those in the higher grades of society 
are of a lighter color. The type we see on the ancient 
Egyptian monuments is nearer the type of the central 
population." It is evident from this that it is the out- 
door exposure of the lower or working classes that 
makes the skin blacker. It must also be remembered 
that it is not the skin of the human inhabitant of Africa 
alone which manifests deep color ; but the same is true 
of its birds, beasts, fish, reptiles, and plants. Another 
fact in relation to this phenomenon is that everything 
grows less high colored as we approach the polar regions. 
Within the arctic circle is found the white bear, and 
nowhere else ; while the black bear lives in and is native 
to almost every climate. 



276 COSMOGONY. 

We are aware that the skin of the Esquimau is of a 
copper color ; but before this fact can be made an 
objection to our argument, it must be shown that the 
first inhabitants of these cold regions, who had emigrated 
from other countries, were not blacker than, or at least 
as black as, the present inhabitants. It must also be 
borne in mind that it is not required that the colder 
climate shall change the black skin to white in order to 
adapt those wearing it to live there, any more than that 
the use of large nostrils is detrimental by the inhalation 
of cold air. Because they will admit more air it does 
not follow that the lungs should inhale more : nor 
because curly hair protects the brain from the rays of 
the tropical sun, that it does any harm in the arctic 
regions. The change involved in marking a tropical 
race with these peculiarities is essential to health and 
prolonged life ; but their absence in another climate, 
where they are not needed, is not thus essential. Hence, 
they may be permanent in all climates after having once 
been impressed on a race ; at least they will not die out 
in the same time they were produced. 

A?it77ial Variatiojis caused by Climate. 

Upon this subject we quote the following from " Col- 
ton's General Atlas : " " In the animal as well as the 
vegetable kingdom, the largest number of species are 
met within the warmer regions of the globe ; and a 
gradual decrease in the number both of genera and 
species takes place as we recede from the equator. It 
is in intertropical regions also that mammiferous quadru- 
peds are most remarkable for their magnitude, strength, 
and ferocity ; that reptiles are larger and more venom- 
ous ; that birds are decked with the most splendid 
plumage, and the insect tribes are distinguished for their 



DARWIN S SOPHISTRY EXPOSED. 277 

size and brilliancy of their tints. These effects of light 
and heat appear to be extended even to the inhabitants 
of the ocean. Sharks and some of the fish are larger 
and more ferocious in the seas of tropical regions, and 
some species of fish are adorned with gayer colors than 
those of temperate zones. It is also from the warm 
regions of the earth that the greater number of the most 
beautiful shells of molluscous animals are obtained, and 
there likewise do the coral animals and other radiata 
occur in the greater variety. 

"Animals belonging to cold climates are provided 
with warm coats, which would be unsuited for the in- 
habitants of hot regions. Sometimes when animals of 
the same species inhabit countries possessing different 
climates, the garb of the one will differ from the other 
in accordance with the difference of climate. Thus, the 
skin of the stoat in England is comparatively thin, and 
of a dull grayish-brown color ; but in Northern Russia 
and Siberia the coat of the animal is transformed into a 
beautiful thick fur of a clear white in every part except 
the top of the tail, which is of a deep black, affording 
under this form the well-known fur called ermine. If 
by accident or the agency of man, animals are removed 
to places uncongenial to their natures, they either perish 
altogether, or some change takes place to fit them for 
their new abode. Thus the race of sheep now inhabit- 
ing some of the valleys of intertropical America, which 
were originally from temperate European regions, pos- 
sess instead of their warm fleece, a coat of glossy hair 
better adapted to the heat of the climate in which they 
have now become naturalized." Upon the color of the 
African's skin Darwin lays the greatest stress, as the 
distinguishing feature for estabUshing man's identity 
with the lower animals ; but we ask if these facts and 
their teaching — which might be almost indefinitely niul- 
tiplied — are not of sufficient weight to account for these 
peculiarities, without so changing or modifying a single 
species as that it shall even in the remotest degree 
approximate the nature of another. 



278 COSMOGONY. 

Darwin's Defective Reasoning, 

Another important fact in defense of evolution ac- 
cording to natural selection is said to be the beautiful 
adornment of birds and fowls, the design of which is 
declared to be to attract the attention of the other sex, 
with a view of leading to the coupling of the male and 
female. This conclusion is founded on the fact that 
Mr. Darwin can find no other use for the possession, by 
the peacock and butterfly, for example, of such beautiful 
wings and feathers. There may be quite a number of 
things in the universe the use for which Mr. Darwin is 
unacquainted ; but does such ignorance justify him in 
assuming that any of them are for a definite purpose, 
and for no other reason than that they go to aid his 
theory ? Will Mr. Darwin inform us for what purpose 
the beautiful and fragrant flowers of the garden, field 
and wildwood are so exquisitely adorned that they 
called forth that forcible comparison by Him who made 
them : " Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; 
they toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto 
you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these?" (Matt. 6:20). Was this floral beauty 
designed to induce the marriage relation ? 

In his " Descent of Man," Vol. i. p. 225, Mr. Darwin 
says : " Now, when naturalists observe agreement in 
numerous small details of habits, tastes, and dispositions, 
between two or more domestic races, or between newly 
allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument 
that all are descen dents from a common progenitor who 
was thus endowed, and consequently that all should be 
classed under the same species." This argument may 
be applied with much more force to the races of man, as 
every one of these have substantially the same habits, 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 279 

tastes, and dispositions. In another chapter we have 
shown this conclusion to be without the least force 
viewed from such premises. Whatever may be the ex- 
tent of the supposed gap between the lower animals and 
man, one thing is certain : he must rule them or be 
ruled by them. Were man weaker or less sagacious than 
the animals, he would long ago have been devoured, if 
indeed he could ever have obtained a starting point in 
existence, and upon Darwin's theory it would have been 
impracticable. 

That man does exist, and is the ruler of all the lower 
animals, demonstrates the fact that there must always 
have been as great a gap between him and them as that 
which now exists. This fact is irreconcilable with the 
notion that there ever were animals only so much lower 
in the scale than man that the degree could not be easily 
distinguished. Evolution only admits of this, as there 
would have been necessitated an act of creation had 
there . ever occurred an abrupt and great change, such 
even as that which now exists between monkeys and 
men. For the sake of argument let us admit the exist- 
ence of this close relation, and do we not see that the 
contest for supremacy would involve perpetual warfare, 
and that between the savages the most savage would al- 
ways prevail ? Hence the lower men-monkeys would 
exterminate the higher men-monkeys in every encounter. 

Whenever a lower animal evolved one of a higher de- 
gree, and therefore of a more pacific and civilized dispo- 
sition, and who should attempt to govern his father with 
less brute force, the more savage brute father would 
invariably devour his milder child, and therefore the more 
unfit would survive. It must be remembered that the 
difference in intelligence between the two is not of such 
a degree as to give one the advantage of superior 



260 COSMOGONY. 

weapons, or that the child used weapons of which the 
father was incapable. In illustration of this, let us 
inquire. Why have the American Indians so long sur- 
vived ? Why has the United States Government so long 
petted and indulged them ? We answer it has not been 
out of any peculiar sympathy or respect for them, but 
simply and solely because they are savages. Would the 
people of this country have tolerated the existence of an 
equal number of white, copper-colored, red, or black 
men from any other country, who should have commit- 
ted as many cold-blooded atrocities upon helpless, un- 
armed men, women, and children as they have ? No ! 
Every man of them would have been exterminated. 
Only through fear of a repetition of these same cruel, 
savage acts have they been tolerated ; hence the most 
unfit have survived. No ; if men were savage at first, 
so would they have remained, just as the lower animals 
have done, unless domesticated ; and this was not the 
work of the animals, but that of civilized man. 

The most civilized would not survive. 

It is also true that the most savage has the least regard 
for consequences, either of a moral or physical character. 
Such have also the greatest physical strength, in which 
respect man is vastly inferior to his animal contemporary 
or ancestral brothers and sisters, if they were of the 
lower order. Such a state of facts and their logical 
teaching drive us to the only alternative — namely, the 
revealed cosmogony contained in the Bible. Here we 
find the gap between man as the ruler, and all other 
animals as the subjects, so wide that they are under the 
control of his will and superior intelligence ; and the 
truth of this record is corroborated by the facts of the 
world's natural history : " And God created man in His 



^ DARWIN S SOPHISTRY EXPOSED. 261 

own image ; in the image of God created he them. And 
God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful and 
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and 
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth 
upon the earth." (Gen. 1:27, 28). 

Hence, according to the facts and nature of things, 
instead of the family of man having commenced with 
universal savage life — and that, too, animal savage life — 
from which it has been progressing toward civilization 
by such contests as above indicated, it started with the 
highest intellectual, moral, and physical endowments 
with all their susceptibilities, rendering him the fittest to 
survive, and he has accordingly survived. The same 
authorities tell us that the largest and most powerful of 
the lower animals have perished ; while natural history 
fails to show that a single species or individual of the 
savage animals, if left to themselves, ever lost their 
savage nature. That all are savage still demonstrates 
the fact that man could not have been the exception : 
w^ere his ancestors ever brutally savage, and associated 
with none higher to teach him civilization, savage also 
must have been his children, and so have continued 
during all succeeding generations. 

When the polygenists assume that one species pro- 
duces another they put themselves in opposition to all 
facts, and also in contradiction to all the naturalists, bota- 
nists, and zoologists, as Buffon, Turniford, Jessie, 
Geoffroy, and Cuvier, who studied plants and animals 
outside of all discussion and without thought of evolu- 
tion. But the facts of experiment thus furnished de- 
monstrate nature to be utterly incapable of producing a 
new species, and the primitive pair as well, and that 
her operations are confined to^the simple and unimpor- 



282 COSMOGONY. 

tant changes modifying species, which result in different 
races, thus rendering the conclusion inevitable that the. 
organization of each pair of animals and each original 
plant was the work of supernatural power. 

Now, if in a few generations, a continent has been 
peopled by a single pair of animals of a given species, 
and covered with plants sprung from a single shoot, then, 
in a greater number of generations the habitable globe 
could also have been thus populated and clothed. And 
if among all the modifications of species into races there 
has never been produced an organic thing of life lacking 
a single vital organ, or one that had double the number 
— say one which had two sets of lungs — and transmitted 
the same peculiarity to offspring, it also follows that each 
species had its own original progenitor or progenitors, 
so perfect in themselves that the identity of each through 
all coming time was rendered a natural necessity. 
Therefore, polygenism is neither science, philosophy, 
nor Scripture, and monogenism is demonstrated by all 
of these to be true. Hence the original progenitors of 
each species had its existence in the mind and act of an 
independent, uncreated Creator. Any other view is 
alike antagonistic to philosophy, science and reason, as 
well as to the endless array of the cosmological facts of 
nature, discovered and understood by her students of all 
ages. Hence Mr. Darwin's definition and classification 
of species and races is one of the most gross and palpa- 
ble errors ever advanced under the name of science. 

If we would arrive at truth, is it not the simplest 
dictate of reason that we should consult the laws, facts, 
and principles connected with those animal and vege- 
table forms with which we are most familiar — those of 
historic and not of prehistoric times — and therefore 
commencing with the present, living generation ? In 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 283 

other words, we must reason from the known to the un- 
known. Every historian knows that among the ancients 
each nation had its fabulous epoch, and every form of 
(idolatrous) religion, its mythical period ; and whatever 
there was of science partook of the same characteristics. 
According to the geological mode of reasoning, these 
cloudy records of myth and fable are to be considered 
more trustworthy than those of real history. Fossils of 
supposed extinct species — even one of a kind, which 
might have been a monstrosity, having no identical unity 
with anything else in kind or time, evolved from others 
less perfect — are brought forward in defense of the 
theory of evolution. 

Instead of this, their position demands that they 
should produce the most indisputable facts, showing that 
known, living plants and animals are the parents of new 
species before unknown — foi' instance, fowls from fish, 
birds from serpents, acorns from pines, pines from oaks, 
serpents from monkeys, monkeys from men — and this 
only reverses the order and strides of evolution. The 
facts render this necessary, if it exists at all ; for it is 
claimed that many of the noblest animals have become 
extinct by the survival of the fitt'est, and that too, within 
this known period ; and as the one has survived by the 
nicest shades of development, the other has in the same 
degree degenerated toward extinction. But we have 
shown that whatever of extinction has taken place, ac- 
cording to the close likeness and contest the theory 
defines, was of those of the most refined and fittest to 
survive, and has been by close, personal, deadly conflict 
between each pair. The philosophy, therefore, of ex- 
tinct species was not that of the evolutionists any more 
than was the philosophy of their development ; but was 
that of catastrophism, and by the flood, while the coming 
into existence was by creation. 



284 COSMOGONY. 

Instead, however, of giving us absolute proof here, 
where it is indispensable, these gentlemen have the 
effrontery, by an adroit attempt to beg the whole ques- 
tion, to say : " Only give nature time enough, and she 
will evolve that which she does not possess. She will 
unroll that which is not enrolled, or turn out that which 
she has not within — such as an organic thing from in- 
organic matter ; " and to the disgrace of the age, multi- 
tudes of sensible people not only seem to believe it, but 
esteem its speculators eminent scientists. Let us ask, 
are not six thousand years of historic time sufficient at 
least to have made some sensible approximation toward 
such a result — that of producing new creatures .-* 
Especially when it is remembered that during this period 
it is declared that many species have become extinct, 
and by the same contests which have developed the sur- 
viving, hence in the same time. 

Their own Argttments prove Evolution Impossible. 

Thus, according to their own argument, evolution was 
always impossible. It is so slow a process that any two 
generations standing nearest each other — and this is as 
true of any two of its individuals — are so nearly identi- 
cal, that before any radical change is reached the species 
or individual exhibiting it has itself become extinct, and 
the tooth of time has so marred and obliterated the feat- 
ures of the remaining fossils that no just comparison 
can be made. Those fossilized skulls, for instance, 
which have been pronounced a hundred thousand years 
old, have their exact types among the living men of our 
most civilized countries at the present day. Indeed, all 
the varieties of shape and size and of peculiarly formed 
heads exhibited by the whole human family may be 
matched by those of the living, native inhabitants of 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 285 

the city of New York, with phrenological developments 
showing every degree of mental and moral capacity and 
susceptibility, from that of the lowest savage up to the 
most civilized of the world. 

Some of the facts relating to organic beings, and 
which show they originated in a single mind, and were 
objects of intelligent purpose, are as follows : All organ- 
ized beings are born small and weak, and have limited 
existences, varying from an ephemeral age to that of a 
few hundred years. During these periods all increase in 
size and strength until reaching maturity ; then decrease 
in power and vitality, and sometimes in size, and finally 
die. While living they must be nourished, and as 
species, reproduce their kind, either by eggs or seeds, 
and have a father and a mother. As mankind are in- 
cluded in these general laws, they are equally controlled 
by them. These are not only facts of science, but are 
established by every day's observation, and are there- 
fore fundamental principles. How wonderfully does 
this show that man and the lowest insect are linked 
together in the great chain of organic being, the whole 
forming a world of God's handiwork of beautiful har- 
mony and mutual dependence ! 

The reasons, to our mind, which show why anthro- 
pology or the natural history of man is discussed at the 
present day with such anxious intensity — its defenders 
making such apparently bold and successful advances 
against the well-known science of man — are principally 
these : First, the assumption of facts which are not 
facts ; second, unwarrantable inferences drawn from real 
facts ; third, arrogant and unqualified assertion ; fourth, 
using an ingenious and subtle sophistry ; fifth, collusion 
and deception, in the finding of drawings and making 
estimates of the age of fossils : the animating cause of 



286 COSMOGONY. 

all being a desire to undermine and thereby destroy in 
the estimation of others, the foundation upon which 
Christianity rests. Hence the records of the Bible are 
set aside with as great an air of ostentation as though 
they were a mere effusion of the imagination, instead of 
alone containing the history and object of the world's 
creation and destiny, as well as the principal historic and 
prehistoric events, civil and ecclesiastical, which have 
happened and are to happen from the beginning to its 
end, reaching, indeed, into the consummation of the de- 
sign, the re-creation — " The world to come." These 
records declare the eternal and immortal destiny of ex- 
altation to which man may attain, while evolution leaves 
him to die like the common beast of the field, without 
the least hope of a future existence. 

Though man is governed by the physical laws com- 
mon to all animals, yet he is distinguished from all these 
by at least three fundamental characteristics — the 
abstract sentiment of good and evil, the conviction that 
there will be something after this life, and the conscious 
recognition of a Supreme Being. These are so univers- 
ally and naturally recognized as the inheritance of man- 
kind that those who reject them on the honest grounds 
that they do not and never did possess them all, must 
have heads of such intellectual and moral deficiency as 
to class them among monsters. It is the moral attributes 
even more than the intellectual which distinguish man- 
kind from the lower animals. Indeed, the Proprietor 
Himself made man the ruler and, under certain pre- 
scribed conditions, the absolute dispenser of all below 
him, conferring upon him the right of appropriating them 
to his purposes of pleasure or necessity. We close this 
chapter with a few lines suggested on beholding in the 
beauties of nature the resplendency of her Maker. 



Darwin's sophistry exposed. 287 



God^ Science, and Nature. '■) 

Daugliter of heaven, liandmaid of tlie skies, > 

O, science, awake from dust, now arise. . '■• 

Each, link is golden in thy fair chain — \ 

From God down to the lowliest name. 

Each tiny creature, or the planets that roll, ; 

The loftiest orb, or the littlest mole — i 

Hymns forth alike with musical voice ; 1 

Each has its mate and each has its choice. 

Nature is gushing with life all aglow, ; 

To her great Maker with songs overflow. i 

Truth's mighty circle intwines all the worlds, I 

Serene and resplendent her banner unfurls — 

Diamonds, jewels, bright polished stones — , , 

Dug from the cavern or plucked from the thrones I 

Prefigure alike thy radiant sheen, : 

Nor shadow to mar thy fair crystalline. 

Thy pictures inwrought with beauty divine, 

In canopied height or deeply dug mine. 

Truth all immortal to thee shall arise 

The songs of all nature with harps of the skies. 

If thou wouldst know the truth spread abroad. 

Consult all the pages revealed by thy God — 

The world as it is, and is yet to come. 

Its mansions, its fields eternal and young. 

Behold in tliyself , what destiny's there ? 

What stamp of being, what nature to share. 

Crowns, robes, palms immortal, and thine ? 

All came from the world— ^11 came out of time. 



CHAPTER X. 

DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 

Transparent Collusio?t.. 

In order to show still further the feeble attempt to 
prove the existence of man prior to the Mosaic history, 
we introduce some extracts from a lecture delivered in 
Paris, "On the Antiquity of Man," by Prof. A. De 
Quatrefages. They relate to the alleged simultaneous 
existence of man and a certain elephant, or mammoth, 
whose fossil remains Avere found so connected with dead 
human skeletons that it is claimed they must both have 
lived in prehistoric times. This period is called the 
Pliocene, or the most modern part of the Tertiary, about 
6,000 years before the advent of man upon earth. The 
Prof, says : " I call especial attention to this mammoth, 
and we shall presently see the reason why. At different 
times these animals have been discovered in the frozen 
earth of Siberia. Now, as man is the contemporary of 
this mammoth, may he also be found in a fossil state ? 

" Down in these times, all the eminent men in natural 
history, geology and palaeontology answered this ques- 
tion in the negative, and Cuvier in particular never 
believed in fossil man ; but to-day we are led by many 
well-established facts to answer this question very differ- 
ently, and we are forced to admit that fossil man really 
existed and that man was contemporary with those 
species of animals, especially with the mammoth. [Yes, 
but the mammoth only became extinct at the flood- 
The small portion of the earth which the flood left un- 
covered by water did not yield sufficient food for these 
monster-devourers and they became extinct.] This is 
288 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 26g 

certainly one of the most beautiful discoveries of modern 
times ! The ground for it was laid by the establishment 
of a certain number of facts observed in England, Ger- 
many, and France ; but the honor of having brought 
decisive proof which convinces everybody [He means 
geologists, who easily believe curious things.] belongs 
incontestably.to two Frenchmen, M. Boucher de Parthes 
and M. Edward Lartet. 

" M. Boucher de Parthes, the eminent archaeologist of 
Abbeville, while inspecting the excavations made in the 
earth around his native village, at Menchecourt, dis- 
covered stones fashioned in a particular manner. It was 
soon evident to him that these stones owed their form 
to human industry. Now, these polished flints, or stone 
hatchets [Behold how soon peculiar-shaped stones, 
which all stones have, change in the hand of this 
lecturer into polished flint hatchets !] were found in the 
earth associated with the bones of the mammoth ; 
Avhence he concluded that the men who had fashioned 
them lived at the same epoch with those great mamifers, 
long since extinct. 

" At first this conclusion was objected to by the highest 
authorities in geology. This is why I attach so much 
importance to the facts, which entirely refute these 
conjectures. M. Lartet examined a burial-place of 
these remote times, at Aurigans, in the south of France. 
It was a grotto excavated in the side of a hill. At the 
time of discovery it was closed by a slab taken from a 
bed of rocks some distance from this point. In the 
interior were found the bones of seventeen persons, men, 
women and children ; and before the entrance was found 
the well-attested remains of a fireplace. There were 
traces of funeral repasts that the first inhabitants of our 
country were in the habit of making, and such as we 
find sometimes in our day among certain European 
peoples. In the ashes of this fireplace were found bones 
bearing the traces of fire and excrements of wild ani- 
mals. [It must have been an immense fireplace to have 
held the mammoth bones, which must have been in their 
natural size to determine their character. This must 
have b^en a barbecue on a very large scale, to feed a 

10 



290 COSMOGONY. 

funeral procession. Here, too, was found human excre- 
ment, preserved on the surface of the earth, not washed 
away or decomposed for eight thousand years. How 
this Frenchman must have drawn upon his imagination !] 
" Here, consequently, man appears eating the animials 
in question, whose contemporaneousness had been dis- 
puted. M. Lartet crowned these beautiful researches by 
discovering in a cave, in the center of France, a piece of 
ivory on which was unmistakably represented the very 
mammoth to which we have just called your attention. 
It is very evident that this picture could only have been 
made by a man who lived at the same time with'the 
mammoth. In view of Lartet's discoveries, we must 
admit the existence of fossil man, that is to say, the co- 
existence of our species with the last species of animals 
of which we have spoken." Popular Science Monthly, 
No. 2. 

Hard Pressed for Evidence. 

In the first place, we wish to direct attention to the 
assumed importance of this discovery — that it demon- 
strates the existence of man four thousand years before 
the days of Adam, and that before this discovery there 
was not a geologist who believed in fossil man ; that in 
view of this solitary discovery every one of them is 
satisfied of his former error, and now admits the great 
antiquity of man. To credit such evidence, and from 
it to draw such a conclusion, exhibits such dogged per- 
sistency to make out a case that we cannot attribute it to 
the morbid love of the marvelous, but to the fact that 
being sorely pressed for evidence, it is eagerly accepted 
as fact, with its absurd conclusion, though it antago- 
nizes the Mosaic account of creation as to time. 

Now if these so-called facts bear unmistakable marks 
of having been fabricated for the purpose, then the 
pretentious teaching intended can be characterized by 
no milder term than infamous. It is said this mammoth 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 291 

existed and became extinct in what geologists call the 
Pliocene part of the Tertiary period, a formation more 
recent than chalk and consisting of sandstone, claybeds, 
limestone, and containing fossils, some of which are 
identical with existing species. This period is divided 
into three parts, the Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene, and 
is chronologically located about 4,000 years prior to the 
days of Adam. These mammoths became extinct in the 
latter part of this period, which, according to Dye in 
his work entitled, " The Ages of Nature, Geology, and 
Palaeontology," is ^put down at 2,000 years prior to 
Adam. Here man existed, not in his monkey-transi- 
tion state, but as veritable man. Here the mammoth 
lived and became extinct, and his bones have been pre- 
served in the heart of France without decomposition for 
the period of 8,000 years. 

The lecturer above quoted further says , " We have 
not only found traces of these primitive industries, but 
jaw-bones and entire craniums. Hence we can judge of 
the characteristics which distinguished our first ances- 
tors ; and, strange to tell, we find that these men, who 
even in France warred with stone weapons against "the 
mammoth, have at the present day descendants present- 
ing the same characteristics in Europe." If it is a fact, 
as here admitted, that the craniums of these ancient men 
exhibit the same phrenological developments as those 
of the present European, then man is not the creature 
of evolution, but as physically perfect at one period as 
at another. Hence the facts of geology and the facts of 
evolution demolish each other, and leave the testimony 
of Moses uninjured. 

The question of the use of flint hatchets proves noth- 
ing more than that emigrants to new countries or regions 
substitute rude implements both for warfare and hus- 



292 COSMOGONY. 

bandry. In the Life of President Lincoln it is recorded 
that, when he was a boy living on the frontiers of Ken- 
tucky, his father dug a concave hole in a log and found 
a stone to fit it, with which the family used to crush the 
corn for making bread, answering the purpose of a grist- 
mill. Now suppose some such enthusiastic geologist as 
this Frenchman, Lartet, had exhum.ed from the ruins of 
the Kentucky log-cabin where the great Lincoln was 
born the remains of this rude grist-mill, and not know- 
ing its history, would he not have declared them to be 
positive evidence of prehistoric times, and of fossil man, 
and have gravely chronicled the fact that they were con- 
temporaneous with the flint hatchets, and were used in 
the Pliocene period, 8,000 years ago ? 

The French geologist found the bones of seventeen 
men, women and children, in a grotto in France, and in 
such a perfect state of preservation that they were thus 
identified and distinguished. At the entrance of the 
sepulcher, in an old fireplace, were found bones and 
ashes of extinct animals, which were therefore while 
living contemporaneous with the human beings of whom 
these bones were the remains. Imagine an old fireplace 
containing bones, excrements, and ashes for eight thou- 
sand years ! Verily it was "old." 

From these so-called facts it is assumed that these 
men, women, and children were buried contempora- 
neously, with the mammoths, and that those who had 
buried them had partaken of a fine repast of roasted 
mammoth, which they had first killed with their hatchets, 
of which instruments there has never one been found 
having a handle ; but it is supposed these little pieces 
of sharp flint were fastened in the ends of split sticks. 
In a word, this funeral procession surprised the mam- 
moth, which was about four times as large as a modern 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 293 

elephant, and attacked him with the sharp flints fastened 
in split sticks, until finally overcome by the mourners, he 
fell dead into the fireplace, just where it was necessary for 
him to fall, as no number of men forming a funeral pro- 
cession could have carried him there. As he was now 
in the fireplace they roasted him whole. This is proved 
by the fact that Lartet found his bones whole. Having 
the beast in the fireplace, they must have had quite a 
time in felling trees with the flint hatchets, as a number 
of cords of wood would be required to roast him. 

Such a barbecue, it would seem, would consume 
several weeks, during which time the funeral procession 
stayed day and night in the burying-place. Behold, 
what a fact of geology and evolution is here ! The 
mouth of the grotto was covered by a loose slab of rock, 
of course not so good a barrier against the admission of 
the decomposing agents of the atmosphere as though 
these dead had been buried five or six feet under 
ground. Can there be found a single bone of a corpse, 
even thus buried, after the lapse of two hundred years, 
unless petrification has taken place ? and petrification is 
not claimed for the seventeen bodies : they had not de- 
composed for 8,000 years even so as to prevent identity 
of sex or size. 

A Clear Case of Collusion or Fraud. 

But Lartet crowned these beautiful researches by dis- 
covering in a cave, in the center of France, a piece of 
ivory on which was unmistakably represented this very 
mammoth ; and it is declared by the German lecturer 
that the picture could only have been drawn by a man 
who lived at the same time with the mammoth. But we 
ask, why should the finding of this picture in another 
cave and in another locality connect all these strange 



294 COSMOGONY. 

things, and all go to prove the vast antiquity of man? 
Why could not Lartet, supposing him to be a poor 
artist, have carved it himself, or have procured the aid 
of a palaeontologist to draAv the picture of the whole 
beast from having seen a single bone, even of a toe — as 
this is the qualification claimed for them — have copied 
the picture on the ivory, and then have voluntarily lost 
it in the cave and found it again, for the purpose of 
making this "beautiful discovery." 

Did it never occur to those who accept such fables as 
the fossil men and ivory picture found in caves by this 
famous French geologist, that an equally interested in- 
dividual by the name of Mohammed "found " a book in 
a cave at a place called Mecca, who declared this book 
(the Koran) was written or dictated by an angel ; and 
how finally tens of thousands of intelligent people be- 
lieved the lie ? They might also be reminded of another 
similar circumstance : how a man by the name of 
Spaulding wrote a fictitious story for his own amuse- 
ment, purporting to be the history of an extinct people, 
and called it the "Book of Mormon," which afterward 
was mysteriously deposited in a cave or hole in the earth 
near Palmyra, N. Y., and was then "found" by one 
Joseph Smith, who pretended it was a divine revelation. 
Thousands of people believe the story to-day. 

There is also the later mystery of the " Cardiff' Giant," 
which was dug out of the earth a few years since and 
exhibited in various places in this country, among others 
in Albany, N. Y., at the geological rooms. The facts 
concerning it are now well known. One man hired 
another to carve the giant out of stone, and then buried 
it in a certain spot on his farm, where after a few 
months the farmer " discovered " the wonderful fossil 
while digging a well, and exhumed him for exhibition. 



DEFECTIVE Geological data. 295 

Had those who ferreted out these facts been content 
with such superficial investigation as the geologists and 
evolutionists usually accept, this marvelous fossil, inas- 
much as it was composed of a kind of stone which is 
claimed to have been found millions of years ago, would 
have been regarded as a contemporaneous formation or 
petrification. Hence the fossil would have demon- 
strated the great antiquity of man, showing also that 
there were giants as well as mammoths in those early 
days. 

As an addition to these cave mysteries, we quote the 
following, also from Deacon Dye's chart : " The oldest 
remains of man that have been found are represented by 
skull No. 14, found by Prof. Schmerline, in the Engis 
Cave, Belgium. In i860. No. 13 was found in the 
Muenderthal cave. Sir Charles Lyell estimates that 
100,000 years have rolled by since the persons owning 
these skulls lived." It is necessary to state that most 
German professors are not on very good terms with 
Moses, and are famous for bold assertion and extrava- 
gant conclusion, urged on as they- are by a long-acquired 
love of the skeptical, and by as determined a zeal to 
demolish the Bible as ever burned in the breast of Paine 
or Voltaire, but not with as honestly avowed purpose. 

This Professor Schmerline, driven to sore extremity 
for some astonishing facts to demonstrate the great 
antiquity of man, with which it would be impossible to 
reconcile the Mosaic account of his creation, and hoping 
also for the notoriety such a discovery would insure, 
procured the skulls of two idiots or monsters, and hid 
them in two caves in different places, and then afterward 
" found " them. Now all the declarations of all the ge- 
ologists and evolutionists in the world will never prevent 
sensible people from looking upon such discoveries with 



296 COSMOGONY. 

suspicion, and holding the pretentious discoveries in the 
merited contempt which attaches to all collusionists. 

Lyell Swnmoned to Estimate the Age of the Skulls. 

Who is summoned to examine and ascertain the age 
of the skulls ? Is it one who questions the authenticity 
of many of the so-called geological facts and disputes 
the conclusions drawn from most of the remainder, and 
of all of those relating to the philosophy and science of 
their genesis of the world ? Not at all. Such a one 
might ask too many questions, and might propose to 
procure other just such skulls on persons still living 
No, no I Pharaoh wants only his own magicians. " Call 
in the wise men of Egypt ; " it is in the success of their 
arts he hopes ; indeed, he fears nothing more than the 
truthful interpretations of the little rod of Moses. Sir 
Charles Lyell is accordingly summoned to unravel the 
mysteries of the wonderful skulls, and to declare their 
import. No more of Moses — the magic — philosopher's 
stone is found. The geological world stands on tip-toe 
to hear Lyell's amazing announcement : " One hundred 
thousand years since these skulls were worn." Grieve 
not that embalming is buried among the " lost arts ! " 
Egyptian mummies of 2,000 years, ye are but infants ; 
for here are charmed caves wherein human skeletons 
may be preserved from decomposition one hundred 
thousand years. 

Who cannot see that this Lyell, being one of the most 
prominent champions of the theory of almost limitless 
time for the coming into existence of the inorganic, and 
a little less for the organic world, is the very last man 
who should have been invited by Professor Schmerline, 
the happy man who found the relics, to pronounce upon 
their age ? No, Sir Charles, we should be unworthy of 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 297 

the age were we not to give expression to the demand of 
the good and noble of the world, to be satisfied with 
nothing less than infallible and diversified proof in such 
an important controversy — such for example, as that 
sunshine produces light and heat ; that heat expands and 
cold contracts material bodies ; that gravity keeps the 
solid earth in order ; that plants reproduce their kind ; 
that fluids seek their level, or that like causes produce 
like effects. Give us, in a word, such demonstrations as 
establish these fundamental principles of natural science, 
the philosophy of which is recognized, and they cannot 
fail to commend themselves to respectful consideration. 
To be satisfied with less, when such momentous issues 
are involved, would be not only a servile cringing of the 
manhood of our age, but would have been an unpardon- 
able affront to the mental and moral night of the " Dark 
ages," and therefore a much graver offense against the 
civilization and Christianity of the nineteenth century. 

Another erroneous calculation as to the great age of 
the world is founded upon the assumption that the coal- 
beds were formed by the decomposition of vegetation, 
ages before man was upon earth. In answer to the in- 
quiry as to where such a prodigious mass of vegetable 
matter came from, we are told that in long ages past the 
earth's atmosphere was composed principally of carbon, 
the gas upon which plants feed, and they therefore grew 
in great abundance and luxuriance. Of course we can- 
not but be thankful to Dame Nature for having been so 
considerate in making timely provision to meet the 
necessities of mankind, whom she intended to evolve by 
a turn of her wonderful machine. The science and 
philosophy involved in the process of coal production 
are founded upon the fact that vegetation decomposes 
the atmosphere, retaining its carbon and rejecting its 



298 COSMOGONY. 

Other gases. The atmosphere therefore becoming prin- 
cipally carbon, supports vegetables with much greater 
vigor and renders them more prolific. 

It might as well be claimed that if the air were 
composed principally of oxygen, the gas which supports 
animal life, animals would become more vigorous and 
prolific. Instead, however, of this being true, no man 
or animal could live an hour in an atmosphere com- 
posed principally of oxygen. So with plants : although 
they make their food out of carbonic acid gas, yet were 
they exposed to an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas, they 
would live but a short and sickly life, never reaching 
that degree of maturity necessary to the reproduction of 
their kind. Hence, if the carboniferous period ever 
existed, instead of its being able to produce the vast 
amount of vegetation necessary to form the coal 
measures, it- could have produced none at all. These 
are well-known facts of science, which are irreconcilable 
with the geological theory of coal production, which is 
therefore not true science. 

We have shown that the relative component parts of 
the atmosphere are invariable, and that the simultaneous 
existence of the two great divisions of organic nature — 
vegetables and animals — is essential to the preservation 
of the equilibrium of the atmosphere, so that either may 
live. Sunlight is also essential to vegetable production ; 
but in a carbonic atmosphere there could have been no 
light, at least nothing more than dim twilight. There 
was therefore never any '' carboniferous period," and 
its invention by skeptical geologists to overthrow the 
Mosaic chronology of the world falls to the ground. 

The Oil Fountains Proved to be Creations. 
Our answer, therefore, to the question, Whence came 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 299 

the coal ? which nothing in nature needs or animals use 
but man, and which is a necessity for the advanced im- 
provements and needs of the present generation of 
mankind, is that it came from the same Hand that made 
the air he breathes, the water he drinks, the food he 
eats, the wools and furs for his clothing. If coal pos- 
sesses vegetable properties, so does the soil, and so did 
the original soil. To make the soil must have been an 
act of creation, as there had been no vegetables to de- 
compose to form it. Coal-beds, like salt-mines, are 
distributed over the earth. Salt is not found upon the 
surface of the earth, where it would unfit the land for 
vegetable production, yet it is not buried so deep but 
that the art of man may reach it. 

Neither are coal-mines found upon the surface ; had 
they been above ground, conflagrations would have de- 
stroyed them. So also with petroleum. Had the 
attempt been made to store it in basins upon the earth's 
surface, fires would have licked it up long ere this ; but 
coal and oil, though buried, lie within the available 
reach of man, and are found in quantities which have 
been and will continue to be sufficient to meet his wants 
so long as the globe remains in its present form. 

When wood for fuel failed to meet the needs of man- 
kind in successive localities, coal-mines were discovered. 
When oil for light and lubrication had approached 
exhaustion, on account of the rapid increase of popula- 
tion and the extension of machinery, the fountains of 
petroleum w^ere opened. Petroleum lies at a depth of 
from three hundred to eight hundred feet, and that in 
solid rock, with the exception of about thirty feet of 
loose material upon the surface. It lies in strata of 
sandstone, such as grindstones are made of. These 
strata are cased on both sides with a few inches of flint. 



300 COSMOGONY. 

and are always found lying horizontally with the plane 
of the earth's surface, showing that they have never been 
disturbed by any upheaval or depression of the crust of 
the earth in those localities. He who rent it into frag- 
ments by breaking up the " fountain of the great deep '* 
to bring out the waters thereof, in order to cover the 
surface of the globe at the flood, left these rocks en- 
closing the oil undisturbed. 

Were these coarse-grained sandstone strata not cased 
with the flint, through which no liquid or moisture can 
penetrate, the oil would have sunk by its own gravity 
into the finer grained rocks below and have been forever 
lost to man. Or had these strata stood at the inclination 
or angles common to rocks in other localities, and indeed 
almost universal — some even standing perpendicular, as 
the palisades on the Hudson River — then also would the 
oil have sunk beyond the power of art to reach. Here, 
therefore, is manifested the wisdom of the God of 
Nature, in the creation, manner of deposit, and preserva- 
tion of the coal and oil to supply the demands of human 
kind until his purposes are accomplished. 

Two facts forbid the possible formation of petroleum 
from vegetable decomposition. First, there is no pos- 
sibility that a particle of vegetable matter could have 
penetrated hundreds of feet of solid rock ; indeed, were 
it possible, so soon as it reached the flint casing of the 
sandstone, there it must have remained. As stated 
above, the oil lies within. The other fact is, that there 
is no chemical affinity between the sandstone formation 
and the oil. Therefore, not being produced from the 
sand grains within the flint casings, and being by them 
prevented from entering either from above or beneath, 
it must have been created and thus deposited. 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 30I 

The Gravel and Boulder Deposits by the Flood. 

Lyell sa)^s : *' There can be no doubt that the myriads 
of angular and rounded blocks could not have been 
borne along by ordinary rains or marine currents, so 
great is their volume and weight, and so clear are the 
signs, in many places, of time having been occupied in 
their successive deposition ; for while some of them are 
buried in mud and sand, others are distributed at various 
depths through heaps of regularly stratified sand and 
gravel." Yes, and he might and should have said that 
each of the sand-grains and gravel atoms is also a 
rounded boulder, on a smaller scale, and was disintegrat- 
ed by an adequate wash of water from larger fragments 
of broken rock with which its structure is identical. 

Ly ell's Ignorance or Arrogance. 

*' No waves of the sea raised by earthquakes, nor the 
bursting of lakes dammed up for a time by land-slips or 
by avalanches of snow, can account for these facts." 
Yes, Mr. Lyell ! but you should not have been ignorant 
of the fact that there was once an extraordinary deluge, 
lasting for one hundred and fifty days, covering with 
water the highest mountains, and which " broke up " the 
crust of the earth, letting the fountains of water out to 
drown the world. This catastrophe was amply sufficient 
to break the rocks into fragments and grind them into 
the larger and smaller boulders ; and at the subsidence 
of the waters they would be formed into regular and ir- 
regular strata, just as we find them. If you were not 
ignorant of the existence and history of this universal 
inundation, recorded equally in the rocks and in the 
" Scriptures of truth," then your egotism or arrogance is 
reprehensible in the last degree ; for while you ignore 



302 COSMOGONY. 

the Bible statements concerning this greatest historic 
dekige of the world, still you attribute all its effects to 
lesser causes, not seeming to comprehend the fact that 
the violence of the cause will in a short time produce 
effects which would require a much longer time for 
agencies of less magnitude ; and that the fact of regular- 
ity or irregularity in the effects depends entirely upon 
particular local circumstances. 

In the November number of the Popular Science 
Monthly for 1873, we are told that a Mr. Morlot has 
made some interesting calculations respecting the age of 
geological formations in Switzerland : " The torrent of 
Tinvere, at the point where it falls into the lake of 
Geneva, has gradually built up a cone of gravel and al- 
luvium. In the formation of the railway the cone has 
been bisected for a length of 1,000 feet and to a depth, 
on the central part, of about 32 feet. The section of the 
cone shows a very regular structure, which proves that 
its formation was gradual." He assigns about 6,000 
years for the formation of the lower layer of vegetable 
soil. " But above this is another layer, which was formed 
when the lake stood at a higher level than at present, and 
is referred to the "period of river-drift gravels, indicat- 
ing an antiquity of 100,000 years." The assumption for 
the time consumed in building up the hill or cone rests 
upon the facts that the layers are somewhat regular, and 
that the soil which was once on the top is now at the 
bottom. 

It is admitted that the cone was formed by the sub- 
sidence of a mighty lake. Of course the' top of the cone, 
which is 32 feet above the railway, was once at the bot- 
tom of the great lake ; and supposing it to have been as 
much above as it is now below, the lake would have 
been 64 feet deep at the level of the railway. This 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 303 

would give a flood which would probably have covered 
every hill on the surface of the earth prior to the flood — 
the higher mountains and deeper oceanic excavations 
being the work of the flood. The scientific fact that 
water seeks its level proves that if a hill 64 feet high in 
Switzerland was covered with rising water, it would also 
cover every other hill of the same height on the globe. 
Let us suppose that where this hill now stands was once 
a valley, and that it was in such a position that when 
Marlot's lake, or the_ Mosaic flood — both of which must 
have risen above the top of the highest hill — subsided, 
the hill was formed by the drift. 

Of course the soil which lay on the surface of the 
higher land would drift first and form the lowest layer 
in the cone below, and so continue until every layer in 
it was formed ; but that which would be last of the drift 
and last of the deposit would form the top layer of the 
con,e. The Noachian flood lasted 150 days, and occupied 
most of the time in subsiding, which would give ample 
time for the formation of this cone. Of course its ap- 
pearance and that of its layers would be precisely the 
same whether formed in 150 days or 100,000 5^ears, the 
regularity and reversion of the layers being the same in 
either case and giving the only ground for the calcula- 
tion. 

This explanation, also accounts for the geological 
structure of all similar hills, and exposes the folly of 
tliis Morlot's calculation. It is a w^ell known fact that 
the time consumed in rounding off the corners of large 
blocks of stone on small grains of sand or gravel is long 
or short in proportion to the violence and density of the 
elements driving them along, or rushing over or through 
them if stationary. If fifty years were required to round 
a boy's marbles, of which a thousand are sold for a dol- 



304 COSMOGONY. 

lar, their manufacture would be a very unprofitable busi- 
ness; but the fact is, it only requires a few days' tum- 
bling in a rolling barrel, submerged in water and sand, 
to accomplish the work. 

Rapid Chajiges in Short Spaces. 

We have introduced some extracts from, an article 
published in the Methodist Quarterly Review for 1865, 
written by the Rev. Thomas Hurlburt of Sarnia, C. W. 
For thirty-five years the writer had been wandering over 
the continent of North America, as an Indian mission- 
ary, studying Indian languages and natural phenomena. 
In this character he explored the region from Texas to 
Hudson Bay, tracing the course of more rivers than 
almost any other man, but devoting special attention to 
the laws of change and general phenomena. He says : 
" Fluviology — river-study — is as much a science as 
geology or botany, and as much worthy of a niche in 
the great temple of human knowledge. It is from this 
source mainly we propose to draw our evidences of the 
recent order and origin of things. 

" Sir Charles Lyell, on page 245, expresses the opinion 
that it is possible to render the delta of the Mississippi 
available as a chronometer by which the lapse of past 
pliocene time could be measured. In this opinion w^e 
most fully concur. Mr. Darwin, in his work on the 
'Origin of Species,' allows us to suppose that fourteen 
hundred millions of generations of animal life have 
passed since its first creation or appearance on our 
globe. And Lyell and others inform us that their dis- 
coveries justify the conclusion that North America has 
been peopled by man a hundred thousand years. 

" On page 16 of Mr. Ly ell's work w^e find an account 
of some peat-bogs in Denmark, in which at great depth, 
forest trees and the works of man are found from a 
period of from four to sixteen thousand years. It must 
be borne in mind that these peat-bogs are all found in 
hollows, and that man existed before the drift filled 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 305 

them. The bones and works of man are found mixed 
promiscuously with vast amounts of the bones of extinct 
animals, as well as those that still exist. The peat-bogs 
of Denmark show these changes in forest vegetation. 
Near the bottom of the bogs are found Scotch firs and 
the works of man ; above these, oaks are found and the 
works of man, showing an advance in civilization ; and 
above these beech trees are found, which is almost the 
only tree now indigenous in Denmark. 

" It is argued that, to produce this growth of peat and 
these several changes in the entire forest vegetation, 
required a vast lapse of time and great changes in the 
climate. In hundreds of places in the northern part of 
our continent I have seen these changes in the forest 
vegetation. In the nature of things it is impossible for 
these old fir forests to remain for many years. The mass 
that always accumulates on the trees and on the ground 
in these gloomy forests, impervious to sun or wind, and 
the rosin that exudes and accumulates on the trees, will, 
in time, insure their destruction by fire, just as certainly 
as the prairies are thus consumed. I have often seen 
these old forests burning, sometimes a whole hill or 
mountain-side enveloped in one sheet of flame. 

'^ After their destruction there invariably comes an- 
other species of tree occupying the vacant place. In 
this way the destruction of the fir forests of Denmark 
and the substitution of the oak can be accounted for in 
one hundred years. Sir Chafles Lyell informs us there 
were a few oaks and beech trees mixed with the firs from 
the beginning. Suppose, then, during a very dry season 
a fire had swept through these old forests of fir : it would 
destroy it and them with all their cones which contain 
the seeds, and as this class of trees never send up shoots 
from the roots, the whole would be destroyed. Not so, 
however, with the oak, for it will almost invariably send 
up shoots from the roots. 

" In the prairies of the West we have counted as many 
as fifty times where the oak and hickory have been 
destroyed by fire, and would start up again from the 
roots before the struggle for life was over ; consequently 
no cone-bearing trees can live in this region, except in 



3o6 COSMOGONY. 

inaccessible cliffs beyond the reach of fires. In the 
northern parts of our continent, where beech, oak, and 
hickory cannot grow, we find as soon as the firs are 
destroyed that poplar and birch immediately occupy the 
vacant ground. But in a country of mountains, bogs, 
and lakes, the fire cannot destroy all the firs, so, in time, 
a few are seen struggling up through the poplars and 
birches, and in time supersede them, to be again de- 
stroyed as before. 

" But in a flat country like Denmark, the firs once 
destroyed would have no chance of survival. We give 
it as our opinion that no thick forests of fir can exist in 
our northern hemisphere for five hundred years without 
being destroyed by fire. If, then, the firs ceased in 
Denmark five hundred years after the close of the drift 
period, hov^ long would it require for the beech to 
supersede the oak ? After the fires had destroyed the 
firs, the oak would most readily take their place, and 
get the start of the beech ; because of its greater tenacity 
of life, it would send up shoots from the roots, while 
both the oak and beech would have a start from the 
stores of beech-nuts and acorns hibernating animals had 
laid away in the ground or hollow trees. 

The Cofitest for Survival hetweeii the Oak and the Beech. 

" The contest would now be between the oak and the 
beech, and a very few centuries would determine it, soil 
and climate being more favorable to one than the other. 
Thus we see, from the rate of changes at present going 
on in our own country, that all the changes of forest 
vegetation in Denmark since the drift period may easily 
be accounted for in one thousand five hundred years. 
Nothing but beech has been known in Denmark since 
the historic period, and the firs, oak, and beech occupy 
spaces in the bogs corresponding to the periods when 
they severally predominated. None of these peat-bogs, 
as far as we recollect, are over thirty or forty feet deep. 

" Mr. Sterry Hunt, Assistant Provincial Geologist in 
Canada West, has made the statement, based on careful 
examination, that these peat-bogs will produce ten times 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 307 

as much vegetable matter in a given time as our com- 
mon forests. It is estimated that if all the timber on 
our common forests was compressed into coal, it would 
make a layer of one inch thick all over the ground. 
This we may suppose would represent the growth from 
one to two hundred years. Were our deepest peat-beds 
or Dogs compressed and converted into coal, according 
to the above estimates, we would find it difficult to 
carr^/- back the close of the drift period beyond four or 
five thousand years. [This would be about the time of 
the deluge.] 

"The Black Forest of Germany has changed three 
times in the historic period : first fir, then oak, and now 
fir again. From such very uncertain data is the at- 
tempt made to carry back the human period far beyond 
the account of its origin given in Genesis. Another 
fact relied upon to prove the antiquity of man is the old 
pottery and other works of art found deep down in the 
sediment of the Nile. Without going into facts or fig- 
ures, it will be sufficient to state that the sediment 
brought down by the annual floods and deposited in the 
A^alley of the Nile, amounts somewhere to about two and 
a half or three inches in a century, so that what was the 
surface in the days of Moses is now some 15 feet be- 
low. 

" In digging and boring wells, works of art have been 
found seventy-two feet below the present surface, from 
which it is inferred that Egypt has been inhabited by 
man 30,000 years. Let it be borne in mind that the 
Nile, like the Ganges, Missouri and Mississippi, and 
other rivers of this class, has its lower course through a 
region of soft sediment deposited from its own waters. 
All such rivers, unless artificial means are used to prevent, 
are continually wearing away on one side and depositing 
sediment on the other, thus keeping all such rivers of 
uniform breadth. The laws that govern this constant 
shifting of the channel are easily explained. In times 
of flood, especially w^herever the Current impinges 
strongly against a bank, it will cut away on that side, 
but at the same time an equivalent for this loss will he 
found in the depositions in the eddy on the opposite 



308 COSMOGONY. 

side ; thus, first on one side and then on the other, it is 
cut away and filled up, so that in course of time these 
curves chase each other down stream. 

Better Testimony than that of Lyell. 

" I have traversed rivers where these ever-receding 
curves reminded one of the appearance of an auger in 
boring, where the curves appear to chase each other per- 
petually. Most of the large rivers of our globe are 
underlaid with sand, a tide of which is constantly rolled 
along the bed of the stream, and simultaneously accu- 
mulating with the depositions of sediment in times of 
flood on the adjoining bottom lands. In the course of a 
few centuries the river really runs on a ridge of sand, with 
banks of soft clay or mud on each side, so that all these 
rivers slip off from this ridge of sand, and as the adjoin- 
ing clay or mud banks are more easily cut away than the 
sand, accounts for the fact that these rivers are uniform- 
ly deepest in the parts newly cut away ; so that a work 
of art lost in one of these deep places, in the course of 
a few centuries may be found far from the river, and 
deeply imbedded in river mud. 

"The city of Booneville, in Missouri, was first built on 
the north bank, but the river left the town, having made 
a turn toward the south side of the valley. The inhab- 
itants followed up the river, and built on the alluvial 
banks. But the town had not made much advancement 
before the channel changed again, and this time chose 
the south side, where the banks of bluffs come sloping 
down to the alluvial plain. Here Booneville still re- 
mains, and all this in less than fifty years. The great 
flood of 1844 carried away a whole section of land near 
Kansas City, belonging to Colonel Chick. Those who 
have traveled on our great Western rivers will often have 
seen a man with the lead, sounding the depth where 
shoals were apprehended. The line used is nine fathoms. 
In the distance of a mile the depth may vary from one 
to nine fathoms. When the lead does not touch bottom 
the man will cry out, ' No bottom ; no bottom ! ' The 
bell is rung, and all steam put on. 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 309 

" The river Nile is a stream of precisely the same 
character as the Missouri or Mississippi. Suppose in the 
early days of the settlement of Egypt, old pottery, bricks 
and other works of art had been lost in an eddy near 
shore where the water might have been ten fathoms 
deep, the moving sand along the bottom, and the depos- 
ition of sediment in this case would be several feet in a 
year, until it was raised above low water. Thus it is 
very easy to see, from the changes actually going on at 
the present time, how in the course 'of a few centuries 
works of art could be buried many feet deep, and be 
found far from the present bed of the river. Some of 
these works of art, from the data adopted by Sir Charles 
Lyell and others, have been pronounced twenty thousand 
years old, and have subsequently been found, from in- 
scriptions on them, to have been only two thousand 
years old. Lyell himself in one place informs us truly 
that all such large rivers as the Nile, Ganges, etc., are 
constantly changing their beds. We, however, did not 
need his testimony to settle this fact. In the year 1850 
we stood on the banks of the Missouri River, near the 
city of Weston. A man standing by my side pointed to 
a snag about eighty rods out in the stream and said, 
' When I came here seven years ago. Squire Jones had 
his corn-field all on this side of that snag. In that time 
the land has all been washed away, and is now nearly 
filled up again.' In three or four years after Squire 
Jones's corn-field was washed away, the man with the 
lead on the bow of the steamer might have been heard 
crying ' No bottom ! no bottom ! ' in the identical place 
where the corn-field had been. 

" Now suppose at this juncture a black boy, who 
might have been splitting wood on the deck, had 
dropped his axe overboard, and the mate had said : 
' There, you clumsy black rascal, you have lost the axe ; 
you shall have a rope's end for that ; ' and the boy had 
rephed, ' Well, massa, it was an old one, and broke on 
de corner.' In fifty years corn may have been planted 
again in the same place, and then let Sir Charles Lyell, 
Horner, Darwin & Co. come along and sink a shaft in 
this part of the Missouri valley and have found the 



3IO COSMOGONY. 

identical axe. They would then announce their dis- 
covery and infallible scientific deduction thus : It is a 
well-established fact that this great valley rises by the 
deposition of sediment at the rate of one foot in a cent- 
ury ; fifty feet from the surface we found the American 
axe, showing conclusively that this great valley has been 
inhabited by civilized man of the Anglo-Saxon type for 
five thousand years. While many are wondering at the 
old relic and at the profound deduction of science, an 
old gray-headed negro comes along and says, ' Let me 
see dat axe.' After examining it attentively he says, ' I 
lost dat berry axe overboard jist fifty years ago, an' 
massa flog me for it.' Lyell and Horner's estimate of 
the first settlement of Egypt is no better than the above. 

Rapid Changes of Deposit. 

" That such rapid changes take place in the Missis- 
sippi region is a matter of fact. I have seen six feet of 
sediment that had accumulated in an eddy in the 
Missouri River in six months, and that so near the sur- 
face as to be left dry at low water. The accumulations 
would be much greater in the deep parts that were said 
to have ' No bottom.' On pages 43, 44 we have an 
account of a pit sunk at Nevv^ Orleans for gas works 
to the depth of sixteen feet. Four layers of cypress 
forests were dug through, with several hundred rings in 
the trees, and at the depth of sixteen feet charcoal and 
a human skeleton were found. The cranium of the 
skeleton is said to belong to the type of the red Indian 
race. Dr. B. Dowler, indorsed by Sir Charles Lyell, 
estimates the age of this skeleton at fifty thousand years. 
No data are given by which this conclusion is reached, 
so we are left to our own resources. Lyell estimated 
the rise in the alluvial deposits of the Mississippi at one 
foot in a century ; but it is a pretty well established fact 
that the delta of this river has encroached on the Gulf 
of Mexico at the rate of six miles in a century, and a 
descent of about three inches in a mile is required to 
drain off the waters. St. Louis is three hundred feet 
above the Gulf, and as it is about^ twelve hundred miles 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA, 31 1 

by the course of the river, we have just three inches 
average descent for the whole distance. But we will 
take Lyell's own estimate of one foot in a century as the 
average rise of the valley by the deposition of river mud. 
This will make the skeleton sixteen hundred instead of 
fifty thousand years old. This also is time enough for 
four cypress forests to grow and be superimposed one 
above the other, with several hundred grains in each. 

" That the whole lower Mississippi valley is rising 
rapidly by the deposition of river mud is evident from 
the fact that the leveling or raising the embankments of 
the river to keep the waters in the channel has only 
been resorted to for a comparatively short time, and al- 
ready presents the appearance of a raised ditch. Had 
not Sir Charles Lyell in another instance given us his 
estimate of one foot rise in a century, all we could have 
said of him, after the facts were known, would have been 
that a great scientific light was in error ; but for him to 
indorse the monstrous absurdity of Dr. Dowler shows a 
disposition on his part to strengthen a favorite theory by 
any and all means, 

" Neither are flint weapons, pottery, etc, of themselves 
evidence of antiquity. The Cherok^es, to this day, make 
pottery exactly the same as that found in the most an- 
cient mounds of America. While in their country we were 
shown the material of which it was made, and had the 
process described. And as to flint implements and weap- 
ons, some twenty-five years age a very old Indian living 
north of Lake Superior, informed me that he remem- 
bered when the Indians manufactured these things. We 
were told where they produced the flint, and how they 
manufactured them. In digging a garden in a place 
where he said they were used to camp and where they 
made the flint implements, we found the ground full of 
chips of flint and broken weapons, 

'' These things, wherever found, simply indicate a rude 
state of society in that country. It will be seen that 
these facts and their real teaching as here presented are 
those very ones from which the geologists obtain their 
data for the great age of man and the world, and which 
is here clearly to be seen, not only justify no such 



312 COSMOGONY. 

conclusions, but utterly fail to furnish any evidence that 
reaches back as far as the deluge, and that the beds 
through which the small rivers and streams now flow 
could not have been excavated by them, or by any less 
a cause than the deluge itself, and that the greatest of 
these drifr monuments indicate a simultaneous period, 
and that not beyond the Mosaic chronology of the 
flood. 

The Loess Proves the Existence of the Flood. 

*' For instance, the loess found in all continents is a 
formation attributed to the action of this great drift. It 
is commonly deposited along rivers, but it is also found 
in open and level countries far away from rivers. In 
Southern Iowa this loess covers the open country one 
hundred miles from the great rivers, and is from twenty 
to forty feet thick, covering the whole region like a man- 
tle of snow In digging wells in this loess old bogs and 
bones are found. On one occasion bones supposed to 
be those of a man were found thirty feet from the sur- 
face, and in the open country with no hill near, and 
resting on or near the sedimentary clay. It is not to be 
forgotten, as having an important bearing on the right 
understanding of this subject, that in nearly every case 
the loess and works of man and the bones of a vast mul- 
titude of large terrestrial animals are found in drift loess. 
These facts seem to indicate a vast and simultaneous 
flood covering man and his works and the larger ani- 
mals in one common grave." 

Another assumption founded upon just such spurious 
data is that of the existence of chalk and its locality. 
Sir Charles Lyell says : " I may also mention in this 
place, that the vast distance to which the white chalk can 
be traced east and west over Europe, as well as north 
and south, from Denmark to the Crimea, seems to some 
geologists a phenomenon, to which the working of causes 
now in action could present no parallel ; but the sound- 
ings made in the Atlantic for the submarine telegraph 
have brought us that mud, formed of organic bodies 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 313 

similar to those of the ancient chalk, and the formation 
is in progress over spaces still more vast." 

Why should the ancient chalk have been formed of 
different material or by a different process from those of 
modern chalk? In what other respect did the mud 
brought from the bottom of the Atlantic differ from 
chalk except that it was white mud, and therefore simi- 
lar to chalk I Why did not Lyell give us a trustworthy 
fact as to the nature of this white mud, upon which to 
base the origin of chalk, such as drying some of the mud, 
and then pressing it into a hard lump ? If it was chalk 
it would then tell its own story by making white marks. 
Who does not know that you may pulverize shells so 
that their grains are as fine as those of chalk ? Yet it 
will leave no such marks on wood as those of chalk. 

T/ie Chalk Argument Stated. 

Upon this chalk theory, the modest Dr. T. M. Coan 
of the " wonderful suggestion," which changes the tem- 
perature of the poles to the tropics every eleven thou- 
sand years, says : " To the geologist, however, these 
large figures have no appearance of improbability." [No 
figures are improbable to the geologist except those 
which make the world about six thousand years old.] 
" All the facts of geology," he continues, " tend to indi- 
cate an antiquity of which we are beginning to form a 
dim idea. Take, for instance, one simple formation — 
our well-known chalk. This consists entirely of shells 
and fragments of shells deposited at the bottom of an 
ancient sea, far away from any continent. Such a pro- 
cess as this must have been very slow : probably we 
should be much above the mark if we were to estimate 
the rate of the deposit at ten inches in a century. [The 
Doctor having no reason for this guess, we guess the 
deposition was twenty inches in a year.] Now the 



314 COSMOGONY. 

chalk is more than a thousand feet m thickness, and 
would have required, therefore, 120,000 centuries for its 
formation. [Behold how evolution obtains the greatest 
from the least !] The fossiliferous beds of Great Brit- 
ain as a whole, are more than 70,000 feet in thick- 
ness, and many which there measure only a few inches 
on the continent expand into strata of immense depth ; 
while others of great importance elsewhere are wholly 
wanting there ; for it is evident that during all the 
different periods in which Great Britain has been dry 
land [So Great Britain has had a nitmber of deluges,] 
strata have been forming, as is the case now elsewhere. 

" We must remember that many of the strata now ex- 
isting have been formed at the expense of older ones ; 
thus, all the flint gravels in the south-east of England 
have been- produced by the destruction of chalk. This, 
again, is a very slow process. It has been estimated 
that a cliff 500 feet high will be worn away at a rate of 
one inch in a century. [The estimate is simply a 
guess, and we pass it like the other geological data. 
Just think of it, for 100 years they had a land-mark so 
accurate that it only varied one inch.] This may seem 
a low rate, but we must bear in mind that along any line 
of coast there are comparatively few points which are 
suffering at one time, and that even those, when a fall of 
cliff has taken place, the fragments serve as a protection 
to the coast, until they have been gradually removed by 
the waves. [We should like to know where the waves 
float these fragments of rock to. The fact is, they lie 
there, and are washed by the waves, always toward the 
shore, until ground into sand, and serve as an effectual 
barrier against further encoachments on the coast. 
Hence the spurious calculation.] The Wealden Val- 
ley is 22 miles in breadth, and on these data [guesses] it 
has been calculated that the denudation must have 
required more than 150,000,000 years." This, we pre- 
sume, is one of the methods of calculating the age of 
the world which the geologists are but just beginning to 
use. 



DEFECTIVE GEOLOGICAL DATA. 315 

The Argument unscientific. 

If the process here explained by Dr. Coan for the 
formation of chalk is contrary to natural science and 
fact, then the estimate of time required for the process 
was a false one. He says, "All chalk was once shells." 
If so, then either the grinding action of the waves or 
some chemical process formed them into solid strata ; 
but as no chemical process can convert the crumbled 
shells into lumps of pure chalk, the inference is that they 
were never so formed into chalk. This, then, leaves 
the formation of chalk from shell to aqueous agencies. 
Now as no aqueous process, assisted by any amount of 
hydraulic or other pressure, will convert the particles of 
crumbled shells into a solid lump of natural chalk, it 
follows that the hills of chalk were never formed by any 
such process. Besides, no matter how fine shells may 
be' ground, the particles are not those of chalk, but of 
shells, and having no adhesive attraction or chemcial 
affinity, nature cannot form them into chalk. 

In the second place, if the conversion of shells into 
chalk was by a chemical process, then the law of change 
common to all inanimate bodies must have been observed 
— namely, dissolution first and formation afterward. 
Now, if shells are chemically decomposed, they must be 
resolved into the smallest atoms of which they are com- 
posed, and any new chemical combination must begin 
with these particles. . It is therefore certain that all 
animal identity must be destroyed by the process ; for 
each shell or fragment of a sHell which may be seen even 
by the most powerful microscope to be such, has not 
been dissolved, and therefore cannot be organized 
chemically into another body. It is also true that the 
elements of nature in the same locality cannot decom- 



3l6 COSMOGONY. 

pose and from the atoms form the same inorganic body. 
Thus we see that chalk never was shells, nor shells 
chalk. 

The mere denudation or breaking up of flint and chalk 
by water on the English coast leaves the particles just as 
they were before — simply those of flint and chalk. The 
nature of chalk and its existence in that locality show it 
to have been the result of volcanic action. It must be 
remembered that another hypothesis of geology is that all 
the solids of the earth were once fluids, or gases even, 
and that the hardening process first took place on the 
surface of the earth. Another hypothesis is that all the 
land on the surface of the earth now lying above the 
ocean level was once sea bottom, and became dry land 
as the result of upheaval. Hence this chalky and 
flinty coast of England, when first thrown to the surface, 
was in a soft and muddy condition, and therefore would 
be worn away by the waves of the ocean more in one 
year then than now in ten thousand years. In fact, there 
can be no comparison in the ratio of destruction under 
these extreme circumstances. 

Here we see how what are called the " principles of 
geology " destroy each other. Especially are they ir- 
reconcilable with the perfectly well known principles 
of chemical affinity, dissolution and. composition. That 
a little white mud found at the bottom of the Atlantic — 
of course formed by the decomposition of white marine 
shells — should have led Lyell and Coan into fixing a 
period of 150,000,000 years of chalky phenomenon 
merely proves 'the fundamental principle of evolution, 
which Lyell and all the other great naturalists have 
adopted or soon will adopt [as Darwin declares it to be 
true], namely, that " the least produces the greatest." 



CHAPTER XL 

PROFESSORS HUXLEY AND TYNDALl/s MATERIALISM 

FALSE SCIENCE. 

Huxley's Definitmi of Evolution. 

It is fair to presume that if the doctrine of evolution 
can be established by scientific argument, Prof. Huxley 
is the man above all others best qualified for the task, 
and that while in America, standing before the most ap- 
preciative audiences, who generally sympathized with 
his views, he would have advanced the most conclusive 
arguments it affords. He assumes certain facts in rela- 
tion to the theory of rudiments — and this theory is 
fundamental to evolution — and deduces therefrom cer- 
tain conclusions ; yet we think his facts admit of no 
such conclusions as he draws from them ; and if we 
show that the scientific and philosophic causes assigned 
for their existence are inadequate, then evolution has no 
foundation in nature. He says : 

" The hypothesis of evolution supposes, that in any 
given period in the past we should meet with a state of 
things more or less similar to the present, but less similar 
in proportion as we go back in time ; that the physical 
form of the earth could be traced back in this way to a 
condition of things in which its parts were separated as 
little more than a nebulous cloud, making part of a whole 
in which we find the sun and the other planetary 
bodies also resolved ; and at no point of the continu- 
ity could we say, ' this is a natural process, and this is 
not a natural process ; ' but that the whole might be 
strictly compared to that wonderful series of changes 

317 



3l8 COSMOGONY. 

which may be seen going on every day under our eye, in 
virtue of which there arises out of that serai-fluid homo- 
geneous substance which we call an egg the complicated 
organization of one of the higher animals. That^ in a 
few words, is what is meant by the hypothesis of evolu- 
tion. The universe has come into existence somehow or 
other, and the question is whether it came into existence 
in one fashion, or whether it came into existence in 
another." ( Tribune Report.) In answer to this question, 
Prof. Huxley claims that the universe did come into ex- 
istence either upon the above hypothesis or upon that of 
which Moses gives us the account in the Book of Gen- 
esis. 

If we prove by the teaching of familiar facts and the 
well-known principles of natural science that the animal 
and vegetable species and races of the world did not come 
into existence upon the hypothesis of evolution, then it 
follows that they were created according to the account 
given in the Bible ; and whether all or any of the fossil 
remains discovered can be accounted for has nothing 
whatever to do with the question. If nature is inade- 
quate to the task of bringing herself into existence, then 
the theory of evolution is false. Here the plain state- 
ment is made that from a mass of gelatinous, homogene- 
ous matter, as the foundation of all life, and by a process 
inherent in itself, nature brought into existence the sun, 
the planets and all things organic and inorganic. Now if 
we show that "life " is of such a nature that it could not 
have come into existence in this manner, that an intelli- 
gent Being created it follows inevitably. The question 
therefore is : What is life ? 

Co7iditio7is of Life. 

It will not be questioned that whatever is essential to 
life is a part of life. As all air-breathing animals possess 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 3I9 

in common what are called the "vital organs," which 
perform the same functions in each, it is immaterial what 
grade or individual we select with which to illustrate our 
argument. Upon this subject Mr. Darwin says: "In 
what manner the mental powers were first developed in 
the lower organisms is as hopeless an inquiry as to show 
how life first originated. These are problems for the 
distant future, if they are ever to be solved by man." 
(" Descent of Man," vol. i. p. 35.) Conceding the prob- 
lems of the origin of mind and life to be of equal impor- 
tance, if we show the origin of the latter to be incompat:;. 
ible with evolution, that of the former must also be ; for 
no one will contend that the first man, or any of his 
successors would ever have had a thought if he had never 
lived ; consequently the mental powers follow and de- 
pend upon the living. In fact, the mental powers have 
no existence except in living beings. So conscious is 
Mr. Darwin that neither the mental nor living powers 
originated in evolution that he is forced to make this 
admission, which virtually says : " Evolution furnishes 
no evidence of the origin of life and mind ; for as noth- 
ing but a living being can produce another living being ; 
and as nothing but a living being thinks, and as thinking 
depends upon living, and this upon physical conditions 
— the possession of vital organs — therefore neither could 
have come into existence by evolution." 

On page 154 he says again : "Undoubtedly it would 
have been very interesting to have traced the develop- 
ment of each separate faculty from the state in which it 
exists in the lower animals to that in which it exists 
in man ; but neither my ability nor knowledge per- 
mits the attempt." Here it is taken for granted that 
the faculties of life and thought possessed by man were 
derived from the lower animals but in a rudimentary 



320 COSMOGONY. 

state. Now, rudimentary faculties of life a,nd thought 
are not faculties at all ; for faculties imply capacity of 
performing functions. For example, lungs have the 
faculty of breathing, but rudiments of lungs cannot 
breathe ; if they breath they are not rudiments, but 
lungs. The difference, therefore, between faculties and 
rudiments is that the former perform functions, the latter 
do not. The first animal, therefore, must not only have 
had lungs, but every other vital organ, performing pre- 
cisely the same functions as they do at the present day 
jn every moving thing of life as well as in man ; for 
no animal, no matter how simple its organization, can 
live or ever could have lived had one of these organs 
been omitted or had it been a mere rudiment. Hence 
the first animal was as perfectly organized as any suc- 
ceeding one, or as man himself is at the present day. 

We mean to be understood that this must have for- 
ever been the organic condition of everything, from the 
lowest insect up to man, that had the power to move 
from one spot to another, or that of voluntary motion. 
To demonstrate this principle of nature, remove the 
lungs or that apparatus with which some of the lower 
orders of animals are endowed, answering the same 
purpose, from any animal, the lowest or the highest, or 
supply their place with rudiments — that is, with lungs 
which have not the faculty of breathing — and will the 
animal live ? If it does not live, can it produce a living 
faculty, or even a rudiment of one ? If it had not lived 
could it have developed mental powers ? 

If Mr. Darwin has ever considered these facts and 
their sequence, he endeavors to divert attention from 
any effort to investigate the conditions of life and repro- 
duction by the sophism that because we cannot com- 
prehend life or the operations of the mental faculties. 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 321 

therefore evolution might have produced them ; whereas 
the physical conditions of life and mental power — the 
exercise of faculties — are just as well known as it is 
known that man cannot breathe without lungs or think 
without brain. Thus we see that the first and lowest 
animal must have emerged from the gelatinous mass (if 
it ever did so emerge) a perfect living organization 
without a rudiment. This mass, according to Huxley, 
is the foundation of all life, and as these facts and 
principles of well-known science remove the foundation 
— the structure ghost of science — evolution falls with it ; 
or, as it never had any foundation, it never began to be 
buih. 

If he had said that this mass was the material out of 
which the living God made the living animals of the 
world, he would have announced the only scientific solu- 
tion of the problem. Or if Darwin had so far yielded 
as to have called his primordial " God," he would have 
presented the only cause adequate to the performance 
of the work, and which the nature of things makes a 
necessity. Here, too, Tyndall comes in and boldly asks 
" Whence came the primordial." In answer we may 
say. It did not come from his fanciful nebulous matter 
by the play of atoms ; than which theory nothing can be 
more absurd, as we have already shown. 

The Primoi'dial A Perfect Creature, 

Our proposition is that the conditions of life were not 
the work of evolution, but of creation. It is a fact 
of physiology that all the involuntary organs of the 
animal economy are employed in the manufacture [to 
use a mechanical phrase] of arterial blood from the food 
taken into the stomach and the air inhaled by the lungs. 
It is another physiological fact that there is a continual 



322 COSMOGONY. 

wear and waste of every organ and faculty of the system 
in the performance of their several functions, and that 
the waste is repaired from this blood, which must there- 
fore contain all the chemical properties, and in suffi- 
cient quantity to meet the demand. When all the organs 
called vital are in a state of requisite activity, having 
sufficient material of food" and air upon which to work, 
the blood is in a condition to make the reparation, and 
the result is health ; but let either of these organs be- 
come impaired and weak, losing its tone of action, and 
sickness is the result ; and if it entirely ceases its func- 
tion, death takes place. This demonstrates that the 
primordial emerging from the gelatinous matter pos- 
sessed every vital organ in healthy activity, leaving no 
place for rudiments. 

Let us notice some of the more prominent facts in the 
wonderful operation of the vital machinery. By the 
mastication of food it becomes mixed with the fluid 
secreted by the salivary glands, favoring deglutition or 
swallowing, as well as digestion. By the action of the 
stomach the nourishing part of the food is reduced to a 
fluid called chyme. The chyme is again changed into 
chyle by being mixed with the gastric juice, produced by 
a peculiar set of secretories in the mucous membrane of 
the stomach, which is also one of the agents of di- 
gestion, after which the chyle is forced into the circula- 
tion. The liver secretes its bile from the blood, and dis- 
charges it by the common duct into the duodenum. The 
bladder secretes its gall, etc. As it is the function of 
these various organs to give the blood chemical affinity 
for every part of the animal system through their secre- 
tories and excretories, it follows that when a kind of 
food is taken into the stomach containing more of these 
properties than demanded at a particular time by those 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 323 

parts of the system for which they are appropriate, the 
organ whose office it is to attend to the distribution of 
that particular substance secretes the over-plus for use 
when there is not the usual quantity in the food. 

The blood thus formed still lacks two substances to 
endow it for its w^ork — oxygen and electricity, or animal 
magnetism. Electricity is the agent of the voluntary and 
involuntary motions of the whole system, and is inhaled 
with the air and stored in the two brains for these pur- 
poses, and the oxygen to give the blood its color and 
vitalization. The lungs decompose the air inhaled, re- 
taining these substances for the most part, and exhaling 
the other atmospheric constituents. These charge the 
blood, rendering it a chemical and electrical positive in 
relation to all parts of the system, and with the magnetic 
expansion and contraction of the heart compel it to cir- 
culate. Upon this point we quote the following from 
Lee's Physiology. 

" The blood, as it goes the round of the system, 
leaving a little bony matter here, a little muscular there ; 
supplying the nails, the hair, the skin, and everything, 
with the particles which, in the wear and tear of the 
machine, they have lost ; by degrees loses its bright 
arterial color, and by the time it comes round again to 
the lungs, it is no longer fit to perform its duty ; it has 
been robbed of all its principles most essential to life, 
and must be renewed and prepared afresh before it can 
be of any further use. This is done in the lungs : and 
this process is what physiologists call the vital part of 
respiration." (Page 253). 

By this it will be seen that the circulation of the blood 
is an indispensable condition of life, and though it was 
chemically prepared to meet and repair the waste of the 
system, without the circulation life would not be pos- 
sible ; from which it follows that every element, organ, 
and faculty employed in the circulation are essential 
parts of the great law of life itself. 



324 COSMOGONY. 

The application of these facts to evolution proves that 
if a single one of these organs, or the performance of its 
function, had not existed in the organization of the 
primordial, it never could have begun to live ; or had 
either of them been a rudiment, the result would have 
been the same : from which we conclude that perfect 
organic beings existed at the beginning, and hence were 
creations. 

We quote further from the same author : " It should 
be borne in mind that the office of respiration is to bring 
the blood in contact with the air, and accordingly, the 
lungs are so constructed as to allow the largest possible 
quantity of deteriorated blood to enjoy the fullest inter- 
course with the largest possible quantity of vital air ; a7id 
all the mechanism of bodies and muscles which I have de- 
scribed are Ofily subservient to this end'' Hence, life re- 
sults from breathing — this from perfect lungs. 

The Wonderful Structure of the Lungs. 
" It has been calculated by Hales, that each air-cell of 
the lungs is the one-hundredth part of an inch in diame- 
ter, and that the amount of surface furnished by them 
collectively is equal to twenty thousand square inches. 
Such is the structure of the vessel which conveys the 
air to the blood ; now let us examine how the blood 
gets to the air. This is effected by means of the pul- 
monary artery, which springs from the right ventricle of 
the heart, divides into two branches, one from each 
lung, and again subdivides and ramifies through the 
organ in a manner precisely similar to the bronchial 
tubes. Every bronchus, or branch of the trachea, has a 
corresponding blood-vessel, which traces it through its 
entire course until it reaches the air-vessels, upon the 
surface of which the minute vessels expand and ramify, 
forming a net-work, so beautiful that the anatomist who 
observed it called it ' The wonderful net-work.' Thus 
the air is on one side, and the blood on the other, of an 
immense surface of membrane, finer than the most deli- 
cate lace or gauze ; and as such membranes are 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 325 

permeable to air and other gases, the oxygen of the air 
penetrates it and unites with the blood, while a portion 
of carbon and water are given off by exhalation. Thus 
does the blood lose its dark, venous character, and 
assumes a florid, arterial hue and becomes fitted to 
carry vigor to every part of the system. 

*' Thus we see that the lungs and all their complicated 
machinery of bones, ligaments, muscles, and cartilages, 
weie formed for the sake of these little air-cells ; for it 
is through their agency that the blood undergoes the 
necessary changes and alterations. When we reflect up- 
on the relative extent of the actual respiratory surface, 
compared with the dimensions of the lungs themselves, 
that a structure of blood several hundred feet in surface 
is exposed to a stratum of air still more extensive, and 
compressed within the compass of a few inches, we are 
filled with admiration and astonishment at the wisdom 
displayed in such a structure, and search in vain among 
all. the contrivances of human skill and genius for a 
counterpart. [And, we may add, how much more won- 
derful is that displayed in the structure of the human 
mind.] 

" The oxygen consumed by a man in a minute is about 
thirty cubic inches. He breathes twenty times in a 
minute, and at every breath takes into his lungs fifteen 
cubic inches of atmospheric air, which contains three 
cubic inches of oxygen, so that one-half of that which 
is inspired disappears in every act of respiration. This 
will amount to about 2,000 cubic inches in an hour, and 
45,000 cubic inches in twenty-four hours. Thus one man 
will consume, in twenty-four hours, all the oxygen in a 
space of 312 square feet." [How delicate the mechanism 
to perform such work !] 

Amount of the Flow of Blood. 

Dr. Southwood Smith gives us the following as the 
result of his experiments : " The volume of air ordinarily 
present in the lungs is about twelve pints. The volume 
of air received by the lungs at an ordinary inspiration is 
one pint. The volume of air expelled from the lungs at 



326 COSMOGONY. 

an ordinary expiration, is a little less than a pint. Of the 
volume of air received by the lungs at an inspiration, 
only one-fourth of it is decomposed at one action of the 
heart, and this is decomposed in five-sixths of a second. 
The blood circulates through the system and. reaches the 
heart in 160 seconds of time, which is exactly the time 
in which the whole volume of air in the lungs is decom- 
posed. The circuits are performed every eight minutes ; 
540 circuits are performed every twenty-four hours. 
The whole volume of air decomposed in twenty-four 
hours is 221,882 cubic inches, exactly 540 times the vol- 
ume of the contents of the lungs. The quantity of blood 
that flows to the lungs to be acted upon by the air at 
one action of the heart is two ounces, and this is acted 
on in less than one second of time. The quantity of 
blood in the whole body of the human adult is twenty 
pounds avoirdupois, or twenty pints. In twenty-four 
hours fifty-seven hogsheads of air flow to the lungs. In 
the same time twenty-four hogsheads of blood are pre- 
sented to the lungs to this quantity of air. In the mu- 
tual action that takes place between the quantities of air 
and blood, the air loses 328 ounces of oxygen and the 
blood ten ounces of carbon." 

All these organs, functions, and processes are so ab- 
solutely interdepending that not one can be omitted and 
life be possible ; from which it follows that life is not a 
single, abstract, mysterious thing ; but the result of all 
the organs and functions we have been considering, 
united in a single body ; or, in other words, the embodi- 
ment is a living animal. 

These facts of physiological science perfectly negative 
the assumption that organic beings first appeared in 
rudimentary form. In his lectures of animal rudiments, 
illustrated by the evolution of the horse from the bird, 
Huxley confined himself to the parts which were not 
vital, such as the shape and size of the limbs, toes, wings, 
etc., arguing that successive generations developed more 
perfect ones. He might as well have argued that be- 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 327 

cause a man was born with six fingers on each hand and 
as many toes on each foot (and we have seen such a 
man), he had, therefore, been developed beyond a man, 
and was a type of a higher species. Upon the same 
principle, if he had been born with but one leg or one 
arm, or no hands, he would not be a man, but a lower 
link in the animal chain. Had Prof. Huxley told us 
that the original horse had only rudiments of lungs, 
heart, or stomach, and yet that he lived, his American 
audiences would have laughed him to scorn. More 
ridiculous still would he have appeared had he told them 
that the horse, with rudiments in the place of vital organs, 
was in process of development : only give the lifeless 
thing time and he would become a veritable horse. The 
identity, however, of the equine species, or that of any 
other animal, is not in his limbs, toes, tail, size, or color, 
but in the vital organization ; and we have shown that 
he never was a horse until all of these were vital, and 
they were not vital until the animal breathed and there- 
fore lived. If an animal emerged from Huxley's gelat- 
inous nebula, let us inquire what must have been the 
conditions of emergence. As it is a fact that all living 
animals have substantially the same vital organs, as per- 
fectly formed, connected, and dependent on each other, 
the primordial might as well have been man as the most 
tiny animalcule. 

Philosophic necessities bri^iging the Primoi'dial into existence. 

To begin, then, there must first have been produced 
a shell of a body, with limbs as instruments of locomo- 
tion, to enable it to go in quest of food, and to feed it- 
self when found. This anatomy or bone frame-work 
must have been of the size and shape of the forthcoming 
animal. The bones must have been clothed with a per- 



328 COSMOGONY. 

feet set of muscles including ligaments holding the 
bones together at the joints. The muscles must have 
been intersected with two sets of nerves, one of volun- 
tary and the other of involuntary motion, and another 
set also of sensation. There must have been a brain, as 
the source of all these nerves. There must also have been 
a complete set of arteries and another of veins, with 
their capillaries, forming a system of tubes for the cir- 
culation of the blood, without a break or a barrier. 
There must also have been two sets of membranes, 
mucous and serous, the one lining all the cavities of the 
body and opening into the air, the other lining the closed 
cavities or sacs of the body. 

Here is the anatomical frame, which must have been 
filled with those organs whose functions are essential to 
the manufacture of the blood to support animal life, 
which we have been considering. These are called vital 
organs ; but they are no more so than the blood itself, 
the air inhaled, or than the nerves of involuntary motion. 
Divide the eighth pair of these leading from the spinal 
marrow to the stomach and the stomach is immediately 
paralyzed, and digestion ceases. This shows that the 
existence and connection of brain, spinal cord and nerves 
with the stomach are each as vital as the stomach itself. 
If the medulla oblongata be injured, breathing im- 
mediately ceases. The reason why division of the 
spinal marrow from the eighth pair of nerves, or par 
vagum, connecting the heart, lungs, larynx, etc., causes 
death, is the fact that one of the functions of the par 
vagum is to carry to the brain the sense of the Avant of 
air, or a feeling to respire. This stimulus reacts upon 
those parts of the spinal cord giving rise to the action 
of the respiratory nerves of the chest. Or if we divide 
the pulmonary artery or jugular vein, death also in- 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 329 

stantly results. Hence the heart or lungs are no more 
vital organs than these nerves, this vein or artery, or 
than any other part of the system the removal or paraly- 
sis of which causes death. Neither is one or any 
limited number of them vital, or living ; but life results 
from the existence and connection of all, and in any 
considerable degree the unimpaired condition of all. 
The only true definition, therefore, of life, is that it is a 
combination of organs, each capable of performing a 
function, so arranged and related in a single body as to 
give it the power of voluntary motion. In other words, 
life is a living animal. 

Here we have the embodiment of every faculty essen- 
tial to life ; but if there be no blood in the arteries and 
veins, breathing would be impossible, and there would 
still be no life ; and the sensation of the want of air 
giving rise to this, being the result of life, shows it can 
still have no existence. The fifteen pounds of atmos- 
pheric pressure to the square inch might enter the lungs 
through the nostrils ; but its oxygenation would not 
take place, as this requires the previous existence of the 
blood upon the outside of the lungs to abstract the 
oxygen from the fresh inhalation. It is evident, there- 
fore, that had nature succeeded in this perfect formation 
of an animal, still it would have been without life because 
without blood. This physiological fact is expressed by 
Moses thus : " The blood is the life thereof." 

To meet this emergency, if nature formed a living 
animal, she must have provided vegetable or animal food 
(and at this time neither of these existed, as we are deal- 
ing with the first organic existence), and have forced it 
into the mouth and stomach of the animal ; but when 
there it would have remained undigested ; for digestion 
requires the action of the stomach, which is the result of 



S3^ COSMOGONY. 

life, which did not itself exist. The only other method 
nature could have pursued in the performance of this 
task would have been to select from the environment 
every ingredient or chemical property of which arterial 
blood is cojnposed, oxygenate and electrize it (each of 
these must be in the exact proportion as though pro- 
duced by the living organism itself), and then open an 
artery and force it into the whole arterial system. Quite 
a task for dumb unthinking natw-e. 

JVature Incapable of P^'oducing Life. 

Thus we see that the conditions of life do not permit 
the absence of one of these parts, or that one should be 
in a nascent or rudimentary state. No matter how near- 
ly it may be approximated, the power to perform its 
appropriate function in the animal economy is wanting, 
and hence there can be no life. If lungs breathe, they 
are lungs ; if they do not breathe, they are not lungs ; 
though they may be rudiments, as they were while God 
was forming them, or afterward while they are in the 
process of parental formation. It only remains to ex- 
press the conclusion in regard to the coming into exist- 
ence of this wonderful piece of mechanism — namely : 
That as the gelatinous or nebulous matter was incapable 
of forming the first living animal, and as such animal did 
come into existence, therefore it was the work of a Being 
of intelligence and power equal to its accomplishment ; 
and for the enlightenment of mankind its Author has 
caused it to be announced thus : "And the Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of Ufe^ and the man became a liv- 
ing soul." (Genesis 2: 7.) Mark : He did not breathe 
life into his nostrils, but the breath of life, which was and 
is the air with its due proportion of oxygen. Deprive a 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 33I 

man of air for ten minutes and he will die. Neither did 
He breathe a soul into him ; but, forcing the vital air 
into his nostrils, the man himself became the living soul^ 
are the Maker's own words. 

Prof. Huxley further says : " The whole jDrocess of 
evolution may be strictly compared to that wonderful 
series of changes which may be seen going on every 
day under our eye, in virtue of which there arises out of 
that semi-fluid, homogeneous substance which we call an 
egg the complicated organization of one of the higher 
animals. That is what is meant by the hypothesis of 
evolution." That we may see the futility of such a 
comparison, see " Stern's Reflections " p. 264. 

What a loose play of the imagination, to see in any 
operation of blind, unknowing matter the faculty of 
producing such marvelous mechanism as is involved in 
the egg, or to suppose that less than infinite wisdom 
was required to bring it into existence — and that, too, 
only assuming it to be capable of reproducing its identi- 
cal kind. How much greater would be the marvel were 
matter endowed with the principle of giving life to a 
superior creature — say a man from a monkey. But Mr. 
Huxley says, " The whole process of evolution may be 
strictly compared to this wonderful series of changes." 
He calls the contents of this egg, " a homogeneous 
substance, which means composed of atoms of the same 
chemical quality." 

It was necessary to give this definition to the original 
nebulous matter ; for had its atoms been endowed with 
variety of chemical affinities it would have implied the 
work of wisdom, and therefore of creation ; but it is a 
gross misstatement of the nature or composition of the 
matter in the egg to call it homogeneous, which has in 
it ail the chemical properties of the hen, as one of the 



332 COSMOGONY. 

higher animals ; and all animals are known to possess 
nearly, if not quite all, the chemical properties of the 
universe. To demonstrate the error of Huxley's defini- 
tion, make a pin-hole in the shell of an egg, letting out 
its contents, and fill it with any. homogeneous substance, 
covering the hole with plaster of Paris. Then set a hen 
on it for three weeks, and if a chicken is hatched, every 
one will believe in evolution and its advocates. 

Hence, to compare the process of hatching a chicken 
from an egg with the evolution of the first animal from 
no egg, and from matter of a single element, w^hen the 
egg possessed all the elements of nature, presents the 
very acme of absurdity. And this Prof. Huxley calls 
one of the strict comparisons of evolution ! The em- 
bryonic chicken was first involved before it could have 
evolved from the egg. Can a thing be taken from where 
it is not ? Evolution, as we have argued before, implies 
prior involution ; and involution implies creation, and 
this again a creator. As we have seen. Prof. Huxley 
admits that evolution, when strictly defined, means being 
born. Behold, how far he is now from the animal 
emerging from his nebulous cloud ! It is, however, 
another of his sophistries put forth in order to appear 
to obtain a starting-point for his evolution machine. 

Similar appearance no proof of Species. 

Huxley, in common with all the evolutionists, thinks 
that were the wide gaps between living and extinct 
animals, such as between the monkey and man, filled up 
by slight and regular grades from the lowest to the high- 
est, the doctrine of evolution would be established. 
But the identity of species, and the persistence of each 
to produce its kind, without regard to similar appearance, 
demonstrate that were this easy and regular gradation 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 333 

shown It would not furnish the least evidence in proof 
of the theory. The fox, wolf, and dog appear to be 
thus graded ; the hare and rabbit also, as well as the 
horse, zebra and ass ; yet by the transmissible organi- 
zation of these animals each is known to be of a different 
species ; as by crossing they not only will not produce 
their kind, or another species, but will not produce at all, 
not even a rudiment. 

Without a knowledge of these facts, obtained by thou- 
sands of experiments, one of these animals might be 
claimed as the descendant of another ; but such knowl- 
edge proves hybridization impossible, and also proves 
that the first pair of each were creations, and that no 
organic thing ever came into existence by evolution or 
upon any other hypothesis than that of the Mosaic Gen- 
esis, The more profoundly the subject is investigated, 
aided by the philosophic and scientific light afforded 
by the nineteenth century, the deeper will become the 
conviction that the Bible statements respecting the man- 
ner of creation and the time covering the work are the 
ultimate truth. 

However lightly any man may esteem the importance 
of the questions involved in this discussion, we heartily 
agree with Prof. Max Muller when he said, *' The ques- 
tion of the descent of man may be called the question of 
the nineteenth century, and it requires all the knowl- 
edge of the century to answer it." And also with Prof. 
Tyndall when he says, " The religious sentiment which 
has incorporated itself in the nature of man, is the 
problem of problems of the present age." One of the 
greatest hindrances to true religion grows out of the sup- 
position on the part of its defenders that things called 
science are such when they are not, and that as these 
conflict with the statements of the Bible, therefore the 



334 COSMOGONY. 

words employed in the Bible must be changed, or sub- 
stituted for others in harmony with the false science. 

Would it not be a complete abandonment by the advo- 
cates of the teaching of nature — which modern scientists 
hold cannot be reconciled with the Bible statements — to 
give the words they employ to convey their meaning such 
flexibility or latitude of interpretation as to convey quite 
an opposite meaning, in order to accommodate them to 
the teachings of the Bible ? So also to change the 
phraseology of the Bible in order to make it appear to 
teach those vagaries, called science, would be an equal 
abandonment of its revelations, both of nature and re- 
ligion. The remedy for both evils is to obtain by impar- 
tial investigation, a correct understanding of the revela- 
tions of nature and of the Bible ; and if both books 
originated in the same mind, all will be found harmoni- 
ous. 

Prof. TyndalVs Belfast speech reviewed. 

At a meeting of the British Association in August, 
1874, Prof. Tyndall, who had been called to the presi- 
dency for the ensuing year, said, "The impregnable 
position of science may be described in a few words. 
All religious theories, schemes, and systems, which em- 
brace notions of cosmogony [the creation of the world], or 
which otherwise reach into its domain, must, in so far as 
they do this, submit to the control of science, and re- 
linquish all thoughts of controlling it. Acting otherwise 
proved disastrous in the past, and is simply fatuous to- 
day. Every system which would escape the fate of an 
organism too rigid to adjust itself to its environment 
must be plastic t*o the extent that the growth of human 
knowledge demands. When this truth has been thor- 
oughly taken in rigidity will be relaxed, exclusiveness 
diminished. Things now deemed essential will be 
dropped, and elements now rejected will be assimilated. 
The lifting the life is the essential point ; and as long as 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 335 

dogmatism and intolerance are kept out, various modes 
of leverage may be employed to raise life to a higher level. 
Science itself not unfrequently derives motive power 
from an ultra-scientific source [and never was there a 
more prominent illustration of this fact than the extreme 
ultraism of this very speech, which in evolution outdoes 
Darwin himself, as we shall see]. 

"Whewell speaks of enthusiasm of temper as a 
hindrance to science ; but he means the enthusiasm of 
weak heads. [If ever enthusiastic temper carried a 
head off its equipoise, it was that of the man who said, 
'I go beyond the experimental evidence.'] There is a 
strong and resolute enthusiasm in which science finds an 
ally ; and it is the lowering of this fire rather than a 
diminution of intellectual insight, that the lessening 
productiveness of men of science in their maturer years 
is to be ascribed. [We think this fact is to be ascribed 
to the other fact, that young men are apt to think — be- 
cause they have not thought deep enough or long enough 
— things are science which are not ; and they have had 
to abandon so many theories which their maturer years 
have discovered to be errors, that their superior insight 
makes them cautious as to what they accept as science. 
Also, that young and enthusiastic men think they know 
a great deal more than they do, which fact is discovered 
when they reach the age of wisdom.] Mr. Buckle 
sought to detach intellectual achievements from moral 
principles ; but if so, the intellect would be poor 
indeed. 

" We come now to the question of the organization of 
life. The fact of the modification of species is un- 
doubted ; the evidence in support of it collected by Mr. 
Darwin is overwhelming. The theory is not perfect — 
Mr. Darwin himself is aware of a weakness — but this is 
a matter of investigation. There must be no more 
check put upon scientific investigation. In our day 
wide generalizations had been reached. [But the details 
do not warrant any of them.] The origin of species is 
only one of them. There was that other doctrine of the 
conservation of energy, of wider grasp and more radiant 
significance ; the constancy and indestructibility of 



33^ COSMOGONY. 

matter, which had long been affirmed, and later expe- 
rience has justified the affirmation. Later researches 
have extended the attribute of indestructibility to force. 
This idea has gradually been extended from inorganic 
to organic life, and from the vegetable to the animal 
world. 

" There was also physical life asking for a solution. 
How are the different grades and orders of mind to be 
accounted for ? What is the principle of growth of that 
mysterious power, which, on our planet culminates in 
reason ? In this also there were development and modi- 
fication of faculties going on. The adjustments between 
the organization and the environment had an influence 
on our constitution and formation which reached far 
back, and could not yet be properly estimated. What, 
then, was the ultimate origin ? Mr. Darwin had suggest- 
ed what he calls one primordial form : but how came 
this form there ? " This is the vital question ; and now 
let us see how much light is thrown upon it by this great 
scientist ? 

Tyndall Abandons Disguise and Becomes Atheistic. 

" Abandoning all disguise, the confession I feel bound 
to make before you is, that I prolong the vision back- 
ward across the boundary of experimental evidence, and 
discern in that matter which we in our ignorance, and 
notwithstanding our professed reverence for its creator, 
have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and 
energy, form and equality of life. The human under- 
standing itself is a result of the play between organism 
and environment, through cosmic ranges of time ; but 
there are things and influences woven into the texture of 
man, such as the feeling of awe, reverence, and wonder 
which had incorporated itself in the religions of the 
world ; to yield this sentiment reasonable satisfaction is 
the problem of problems at the present hour. 

" Finally, I would set forth equally the inexorable ad- 
vance of man's understanding in the path of knowledge, 
and the unquenchable claims of his emotional nature 
which the understanding can never satisfy ; and if still 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 337 

unsatisfied, the human mind, with the yearning of a pil- 
grim for his distant home, will turn to the mystery from 
which it has emerged, seeking so to fashion it as to give 
unity to thought and faith, the enlightened recognition 
that ultimate fixity of conception is here unattainable, 
and that each succeeding age must be left free to fashion 
the mystery in accordance with his own needs. Then, 
in opposition to all the restrictions of materialism, I 
would affirm this to be a field for the noblest exercise of 
that which is in contrast with the knowing faculties of 
man. Here, however, I must quit a theme too great for 
me to handle, but it will be handled by the loftiest 
minds ages after you and I, like streaks of morning cloud, 
shall have melted away into the infinite azure of the 
past," 

Since this lecture was delivered and the criticisms it 
provoked were published, Prof. Tyndall says : " I look 
forward to a calmer future for a verdict, founded not on 
imaginary sins, but on the real facts in the case. Those 
who accuse me of ignoring the existence of God, should 
be content to say, ' Our God.' I do not claim that the 
doctrine of material atheism is a satisfactory solution of 
the great mystery in which we dwell, and of which we form 
a party He evidently wishes to be understood that 
he does not repudiate the idea of God entirely, but 
conceives it to be the God of the pantheist, confounding 
him with the universe ; pan, all ; theos, god, — " all in 
God," — as taught first by Orpheus, a Grecian philoso- 
pher ; afterward by Spinoza, its greatest defender. 
This is also indicated by the expression, " Of which we 
form a part," as well as by the quotations he has 
placed at the beginning of his published lecture ; which 
are more explicit than anything else in his preface. 

The first of these is from Xenophon, running thus : 
" There is one God supreme above all other gods, diviner 
than mortals, whose form is not like unto man's. [How 
does this heathen philosopher know this ? If he knew 



33^ COSMOGONY. 

of what form God was not, he must have known of what 
form he was, as the one implies the other. If I know 
God is not the form of man, I know it by comparison, 
the only method of obtaining knowledge ; hence I must 
know the real form of God, so that I may compare it 
with the form of man, by which the difference or simi- 
larity will be seen], and unlike his nature. [The same 
argument holds good as to God's nature. If I know 
God's nature is not like that of man, I must know what 
the nature of God is, whereby the difference may be 
seen;] but vain mortals imagine that gods, like them- 
selves, are begotten, with human sensations, voice, and 
corporeal members. [His god, then, had no members, 
or incorporeal, immaterial ones, which cannot be em- 
bodied or occupy space, and no '^' voice." He could 
not, therefore, speak so as to be heard ; but man can 
speak, therefore he is the greater, — the ^'diviner."] So 
if oxen or lions had hands and could work in man's 
fashion, and trace out with a chisel or brush their con- 
ception of godhead, then would horses depict gods like 
horses, and oxen like oxen, — each kind the diviner, with 
its own form and nature endowing." 

Modern Scientists Quote Heathen Philosophers as Guides, 
What strikes us as a most unaccountable phenomenon 
is, that these modern scientists go back to Socrates, Plato, 
his pupil, and Xenophon, Plato's pupil, and to Aristotle 
— all heathen philosophers — to obtain ideas about God, 
the nature of man, and his destiny, with which to 
elevate the standard of the knowledge of the nineteenth 
century ! No, Mr. Tyndall, your disguise is too super- 
ficial to conceal your design, w^hich is nothing less than 
the renew^al of the attack of Pagan philosophy upon the 
Christian religion. It is the same old war of the gods 
of heathenism against the living God of the Bible and 
its revealed religion ; but the gospel met and vanquished 
this very philosophy in the zenith of its glory, although 
defended by the wisdom of Greece and the civil power 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 339 

of the Roman Empire ; and it must be opposed now by 
the same gospel, and not by the modern compromise 
with this very philosophy ; for how can Satan cast out 
Satan ? 

The other quotation of Tyndall is from Lord Bacon : 
" It were better to have no opinion of God at all than 
such an opinion as is unworthy of him ; the one is un- 
belief ; the other contumely." 

That Tyndall cannot draw Lord Bacon in as a de- 
fender of his godless philosophy, ridiculously stigma- 
tizing Christianity as " The Mystery," is shown by 
another of Lord Bacon's sayings : — " Though a small 
draught of philosophy may lead a man into atheism, a 
deep draught will certainly bring him back again to the 
belief of a God." It is evident that Tyndall has taken 
the small draught ; let us hope he may take the deep 
one. In order to do this he will be obliged to take his 
conception of God from Jesus Christ, "who is the 
express image of his person " (Heb. i, 3) ; and " God 
manifest in the flesh " (i. Tim. 3, 16). Here he will 
find manhood elevated and the godhead lowered in 
order to assist the limited comprehension of man to an 
appreciative conception of the only living God. If this 
fails to " lift the life of man to a higher level," as the 
essential thing to be done by science, as Tyndall ex- 
presses it, he will still be left to seek among the beasts 
of the earth and creeping things for gods to worship, 
with whom even Socrates said, " it was never supposed 
dwelt virtue ; " and at whose shrines Orpheus, Aristotle, 
Socrates, Plato, and Xenophon paid their Pagan devo- 
tions. 

These sarcastic flings, borrowed from heathen philos- 
ophy, at the scientific, philosophic, and Christian idea of 
God, show the extremity to which Tyndall is driven in 



340 COSMOGONY. 

making a defense against the charge of ignoring his 
existence. But even in the quotation, it is clear that the 
heathen philosopher, not blessed as Tyndall is with the 
written revelation of this Being, had learned from natural 
science and natural religion that there existed an em- 
bodied godhead, a supreme God in unity — which con- 
ception cannot be separated from personality — and it 
was only the question of his shape that bewildered him. 
To overlook this point is perfectly consistent with all the 
methods of the evolutionists, who seize upon any senti- 
ment, though only found in the mythical records of 
antiquity — and even these they distort — which describe 
gods and beasts as confusedly herding together, and 
according to the degrading tendency of this teaching, 
give oxen, lions, and horses the pre-eminence of being 
their ancestors. 

Evolution degrades its defenders. 

How can they avoid becoming gross in their imagin- 
ations, while in thought and contemplation they con- 
stantly mingle with creeping things, searching among 
beastly nature for the power that brought them into 
existence ? Pursuing this study, to the exclusion of that 
of God and his moral nature, how can it be otherwise 
than that they should rapidly descend to the level of the 
objects of their regard ? Instead, therefore, of Tyndall- 
ism being progressive and tending to lift the life of man 
to a higher level, its contemplation of mankind as a 
species of the animal evolved from a lower species can- 
not but degrade him by lowering every motive and 
aspiration to human happiness and greatness. If the 
gods of heathenism, always acknowledged to be superior 
to man, at least in mental and physical ability, have 
failed, in all times and in all countries where Christianity 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 34I 

was unknown, to elevate man, how can evolutionism — 
which sees no greater or better being in existence than 
man himself after whom to aspire, and everything lower 
— how can this, we say, lift the life to a higher elevation? 

Such an assumption is in conflict with the universal 
law of moral and intellectual assimilation ; and by the 
teachings of human experience and the facts of moral 
philosophy we are driven to the reversal of Tyndall's 
order, and are compelled to say that every theory and 
system called science must relax its arrogant rigidity and 
become plastic to the degree that will make its brutal 
sentiments and godless ideas yield to the advance of hu- 
man knowledge, which finds in the real science and real 
philosophy of nature a Great Personal God, to whose 
handiwork the universe owes its origin. The assumptions 
of evolution being incompatible with Christianity — which 
the history of the world shows is the only power able to 
elevate the standard of human excellence — and not being 
plastic enough to be harmonized with it, must be aban- 
doned now, as they have been in the past. 

Besides, nothing is more certain than that all the sys- 
tems of heathen religion (including th^ Mohammedan) 
and the gods they worship are corruptions of t?ie wor- 
ship of the true and living God as revealed in the Holy 
Scriptures, which worship was conceived and performed 
by Abel the second, and Enoch the seventh man born 
into the world. In confirmation of this, it must be re- 
membered that the human family has, twice in its history, 
branched off from a single family, and that while a cer- 
tain line of descendants have maintained this worship 
unchanged and uncorrupted, the branches from these 
centers, naturally wishing to be free from the restraints 
which the laws of God impose, yet possessing an innate 
disposition to worship, in succeeding generations lost the 



342 COSMOGONY. 

knowledge of the living God of their ancestors, and made 
gods for every human passion, whose worship consisted 
in their indulgence. Hence heathen gods are as corrupt 
as their worshipers, while the worship only perpetuates 
and increases the corruption. That the various heathen 
religions thus originated is seen in the striking features of 
resemblance, such as the animal sacrifices, the priesthood, 
the interceding interpreters of the mind of the gods, and 
the belief in future rewards and punishments. 

vThe pupil of Plato, whom Tyndall quotes as the critic 
of the god-makers because they fashioned their gods in 
the form of man, it may be supposed had some concep- 
tion of Tyndallism, or Tyndall of Xenophonism, for his 
mind had become so far darkened, like all his heathen 
prototypes, in regard to moral and religious aspirations, 
as to transfer his worship from the living God to living 
brutes, and even to the original matter out of which he 
himself supposed he emerged. And why should he not 
show respect for his ancestors, or do reverence to the 
earth that begat him, and give expression to it, as we 
have seen Tyndall do ? 

Radical change in systems of so-called science so 
rapidly succeed each other, that in the space of about 
thirty years three different geneses of the world have 
been established, and all by the same authors. In view 
of which, what can be more certain than that the truth of 
the literal interpretation of the Mosaic Genesis of creation 
must and does at the present moment stand upon im- 
pregnable ground ? For according to the well-known 
principles of science and natural philosophy involved in 
matter, motion, and organic life, nature always was in- 
capable of bringing the simplest plant or animal into 
existence. The course hitherto pursued by the defend- 
ers of the Bible, of subjecting its words and teaching to 



MATERIALISM FALSE SCIENCE. 343 

forced and violent interpretation, in order to make them 
appear to harmonize with all the upstart notions of skep- 
tical scientists, must also be abandoned, and everything 
assumed to be science investigated and criticised to the 
very last degree. 

If a statement or theory is alleged to be a fact, we 
must ascertain whether it is such, and whether the teach- 
ing claimed for it is legitimate and logical. In such a 
controversy, as a believer in the Bible Ave shrink from no 
investigation and dread no conclusion. Let us have 
light ! Let us have truth ! Even a heathen philosopher 
looks frowningly down upon those so-called scientists 
who question the existence of a great First Cause. 
" If there's a God above, and that there 
Is, all nature cries aloud. If not, 
Wlience this pleasing thought, this 
Fond desire, this longing after immortality ? 
'Tis the divinity that stirs within ! 
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an 
Hereafter, and intimates eternity to man." 

Addison's Cato. 

An Appeal to Evolutionists : 

If in thy ruminations thou dost descend 

Where naught than thyself is greater, 

Then dost tliou become thy most 

Exalted god, devotions paying 

Within tliy little selfish shrine. 

Behold the idol and the worshiper, in one ! 

Were it not better thou shouldst, like 

The deist, as high aspire as the sacred. 

Temple within thine own cranium, 

Where his god, Reason, sits enthroned, 

Tribune of first and last appeal ? 

But if thou woiildst rise above, asking 

To be informed, this revelator with 

His finger pointing upward will 

Respond ; No god am I, but myself 

Wast made : come, learn with me 

The God who lives above, beyond, 

And reverence only him. 

If too proud for this, then by the 

Law of similes, thy wings for 



344 COSMOGONY. i 

Higher jQiglit are closely dipt, ' 

And by downward gravitation 

Still must tliou descend. 

There, among thy brothers in migratory : 

Crawl , search the ancestral line whence ; 

Thou wast derived, and joining an ancient 

Ally sing, " These be thy gods, that brought . ' 

Thee up from naught." Thus we leave thee, ; 

Revolving 'mong the dead for life. 

But if thou wouldst help I 

To raise thyself and fallen brothers, .! 

Contemplate nobler things, e'en ,• 
Jupiter, of Persian, Greek, and Roman faith ; ' \ 

Or Hercules of great renown. Try ^ 
To conoeive these, who were to their 

Worshipers but half-way aids to the Great Supreme, \ 

Fix before thee some nobler imagery i 

Than thy little self. But if in thy * ^ 

Groveling feebleness thou canst not ' 

Measure so high, or soar on lofty wing : 

To catch a reverential glimpse of the one I 

Central mind of universal nature's ] 

Revelation, then try to scan his i 

Lowest image — Christ the Man. j 

Be brave enough the invitation I 
To accept. " Learn of me ; I am meek. 
Lowly in heart ; " and the reflex of his 

Great thoughts, moral similitude - 
Shall be thine. Noble lilieness ! grand 

Transfiguration ! close associate with ! 

Infinity itself ! Behold what thy destin}' i 

May be. These neglect, and thou \ 

Art a failure : " Better liadst thou not been born." \ 



CHAPTER XII. 

PROF, proctor's nebulous, FIERY ORIGIN OF THE 
SOLAR SYSTEM, UNSCIENTIFIC. 

Prof. Proctor holds that the matter composing the 
sun and the planets of the solar system was once in a nebu- 
lar state, that this was composed of the gases, that the gases 
fused, and that from the action of the molten, fiery mass 
the whole system was formed ; or that by the simple 
process of burning and co.oling, which is still in operation, 
its present regular structure has been produced ; and 
that the sun and planets are of different ages,' amounting 
to many millions of years. In one of his lectures, 
delivered in New York in Nov. 1879, ^^- Proctor said : 
" In my last lecture I endeavored to give some idea of 
the immensity of space, and in this I will try to give 
you some comprehension of the vastness of time, and to 
afford some idea of the age of the earth as compared 
with the other planets of the solar system ; the age of the 
planets as compared with the sun ; and the age of the 
sun as compared with the worlds of the interstellar spaces. 
In considering the vastness of the time which has 
elapsed since the universe had a beginning, the mind is 
lost in absolute wonder, and utterly fails of com- 
prehension." 

After giving some of these incomprehensible periods 
for the cooling of the earth's crust so as to render it a 
suitable habitation for living beings, he says : " But back 
of all this lay the time occupied in the gradual cooling 
of the earth's crust, when the earth was a fiery, molten 
mass, whirling through space — a mass of molten and 
gaseous matter very many times larger than it is now. 
As to the duration of this period, when the crust was 
slowly forming, it was very much longer than the sub- 
sequent one. According to Bischoff's calculation, the 

345 



34^ COSMOGONY. 

time occupied in the formation of the earth's crust could 
not be less than 350,000,000 years, and this, the 
lecturer thought, erred rather on the side of deficiency 
than excess. But this did not fully measure the time 
since the earth began, for back of the molten condition 
fiiere lay still another period, the vaporous stage, when 
the whole solar system was a uiass of nebulous vapor. 
This could only be obtained by approximating, and 
perhaps a period of 500,000,000,000 years may be 
assigned as the duration of this time. Adding these 
figures together, it gave the age of the earth. And this 
cannot be considered as an exaggerated estimate of the 
duration of the earth from the beginning, and when taken 
in reference to the other members of the solar system, 
the earth must be accepted as one of the shortest lived 
planets. [Since no data are given this must be taken as 
a good big guess]. 

" The planet Jupiter being 340 times larger than the 
earth, it took seven times as long as the earth to cool, 
and this would give the enormous period of 3,500,000,000 
for the formation of the crust of Jupiter. With the 
exception of the moon, the planets are at such distances 
that they cannot be very easily studied ; but, in the case 
of the earth's attendent satellite, we can study her sur- 
face very closely. The earth's mass is eighty-one times 
larger than the moon, and her cooling surface thirteen 
times greater. Dividing eighty-one by thirteen would 
seem to furnish an approximate idea of the age of the 
two planets, and indicates that about 420,000,000 years 
ago the moon was passing through the same stages of 
development that the earth is now experiencing ; and 
taking the duration of the earth at 2,500,000,000 
years, the moon may be considered as representing 
the condition which the earth will reach in the next 
1,000,000,000 years — when she will have attained unto 
a period of decrepitude and planetary death. Thus we 
gather from the planets like Jupiter and the moon 
what* the past was and the future of the earth will 
be, but we must remember that the calculations are 
based upon certain assumptions [yes, and the assump- 
tions have not a particle of evidence to rest upon], 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, UNSCIENTIFIC. 347 

and that the time may be shorter or longer, and the 
age of the earth may be 2,500,000 instead of 1,000,- 
000,000 years ; but whether we take the longer or the 
shorter period, it does not matter." 

As one of these periods is 400 times shorter than the 
other, each being based on assumption, either period 
may be taken as the correct one. It is admitted to be 
mere assumption, and surely it can be nothing else, 
because it admits of a discrepancy of 400 times less. 
Based upon such vague premises, we have as good reason 
for saying that whether the earth is 2,500,000 years old 
or only 6,oco years, the latter being a little less than 
400 times shorter than the former, it makes no matter ; 
and this brings it approximately near the truth. 

The Nebular Hypothesis Stated. 

In reference to this theory Prof. Proctor says : " It 
has been found that the sun and the whole solar system 
— the earth, the moon, and the planets — are moving in 
one direction, and this uniformity of movement would 
seem to indicate a coimmtnity of origin [yes ! and a 
simultaneous commencement of motion as well], that at 
some time the same influence was at work to set it in 
motion in the same direction. It is at this point, when 
we look into the heavens for a solution of the mystery, 
that we come upon the nebular hypothesis ; " [a still 
greater mystery]. In regard to this uniformity of move- 
ment in the planetary system, we may remark that the 
spurious hypothesis of Laplace gives not the least hint 
of explanation, and the only other alternative is that the 
influence at work in originating it was the living 
Creator, whose existence we have proved was a philo- 
sophical necessity, and that He created the world. Unity 
of design is no more exemplified in the motions of the 
stellar bodies than in every phenomenon of the physical 
globe, including its vitalized productions and inhabit- 
ants. As Darwin, Lyell, Tyndall, Huxley, and Proctor 
in common adopt the nebular theory of Laplace, it is of 



34^ COSMOGONY. 

vital importance that we should understand in what it- 
consists. As invented and taught by this skeptical 
scientist, " it supposes that the bodies composing the 
solar system once existed in the form of nebula ; that 
this had a i^evolution o?i its own axis from west to east ; 
that, by the effect of gravity, the matter composing the 
nebula gradually became condensed toward the center ; 
that the exterior portions thus had the velocity of their 
revolution increased, until by the centrifugal force they 
were separated from the mass, and left behind in the 
form- of a ring ; that thus the material of each of the 
planets was separated, while the main body was condensed 
toward the center, forming the sun j and finally, that 
each of the planetary rings, by a similar process, depos- 
ited other rings, out of which by condensation its 
secondaries, or satellites, were formed." 

Prof. Proctor says the nebular hypothesis of Laplace 
has been very generally accepted, with some modifica- 
tions, as explaining the origin of the solar system from 
one of those masses of nebulous or gaseous matter which 
we see floating. in the interstellar spaces. '* The gradual 
accumulation of the particles of the mass into centers 
by the influence of gravity, the motion upon the axis, 
and the cooling of the outer surface faster than the 
interior, would create a kind of crust which would break 
off, forming a ring, which would form a mass by itself, 
and move in the same direction as the parent body. 
The breaking up of the outside ring into particles would 
create a large number of bodies floating through s'pace, 
and if there was not enough attraction to gather them 
together in one mass, they would revolve through the 
heavens in the same condition as the ring of asteroids 
which circle about our own sun and form parts of our 
planetary system." 

It is here assumed that this matter called nebular was 
that out of which nature, not God, formed the solar sys- 
tem ; that the matter is described as being vapor, cloudy 
and gaseous ; that this matter took fire, and was one 
mass of molten liquid, a great sea of fire ; that this fu- 
sion was essential to its motion, and the motion to the 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, UNSCIENTIFIC. 349 

formation of the planetary system. As the system is said 
to have originated in this universal conflagration, and 
the time of the cooling was that consumed in bringing 
the several planets and the sun into existence, if we 
prove that the burning never took place, then there was 
no cooling. If the process did not take place then it 
consumed no time. Therefore, all these immense 
periods, measuring the fiery ordeal that brought the earth 
and the other members of the solar system into existence, 
are mere figments of fancy. The fact must be ascer- 
tained that the house burned down, before the time it 
consumed in burning becomes a subject for intelligent 
discussion. 

Hypothesis is not science, but mere assumption. 
Science is based upon fact, but if ever there was an 
imaginary thing, purely hypothetical, that thing is the 
famous nebula theory of Laplace, on which modern 
scientists account for the origin of the world, and which 
is adopted by Proctor and all the evolutionists. Every 
fact must have its phenomenon capable of being tested 
by the senses, or whose existence is susceptible of de- 
monstration by a process of reasoning. A fact must also 
have its philosophy. The fact may exist, but any theory 
as to the manner of its existence, or how it came to exist, 
must be shown to be adequate to cause that existence. 
If a man says the solar system came into existence 
through igneous or aqueous causes, he must show that 
these parts of the system are capable of producing it as 
a whole. 

For example, let him collect a quantity of all the gases 
of which bodies in the solar system are known to be 
composed, and which will fuse or burn, and then set them 
on fire, and if a miniature solar system is produced by 
the burning and cooling process, then Proctor's astrono- 



3S^ COSMOGONY. 

my is true science. This would require but a very short 
time. The theory is that tlie time of cooHng and con- 
sequently of burning is in proportion to the size of the 
body, and if the earth took 2,500,000 years to cool, 
^ 5000 00 of the whole mass would cool in one year. 
Indeed, the quantity of the gaseous matter consumed 
may be so reduced that the smallest planet would not be 
larger than a pith-ball, and the sun the size of an apple. 
Such an experiment would be scientific, and would con- 
clusively settle the question. Let these star-gazers 
whose telescopes pierce the intersteller spaces betake 
themselves to substantial investigation, and give us either 
matter-of-fact experiment or logical argument. 

We proceed now to test the Nebular H)^pothesis by 
the well-known facts and principles of natural science. 

J^ac^s of Natiwal Science prove the Nebular Hypothesis false. 

We remark in the first place that our planet is known 
to be composed of certain simple elements. This knowl- 
edge has been obtained by dissolving compound bodies. 
The number of elements has increased as more powerful 
solvents or dissolving agents have been discovered. 
Another fact is that fire will decompose so great a pro- 
portion of earthy compounds that its intensity might be 
increased to such a degree that in time every compound 
body would be dissolved into its elements. Now if the 
globe, inchidiug its atmosphere, were exposed to such 
a heat, every body composed of two or more elements 
would be decomposed or burned up, and this would be 
its total destruction. Therefore, instead of its being 
possible for our earth to have had a nebulous or fiery 
origin, it would have been completely destroyed, if it had 
been as perfect as it is now before the fusion commenced. 

Another fact is, that simple elements are not suscepti- 



ble of fusion; in other words, nothing but compounds 
can burn. If, therefore, the nebulous matter was homo- 
geneous — a mass of simple elements — as is claimed for 
it, then it could not have burned at all, and could never 
have been in a state of fusion. Burning, or fusion, is 
simply decomposition ; and the process can only last 
until this effect is reached. In fact, if there were no 
compounds, the fire could never have begun to burn ; 
and of course if it did begin, it found formations upon 
which to feed, and the fiery process continued until all 
were transformed — dissolved — burned to ashes or cinder, 
when all fuel having been exhausted, the fire went out of 
itself, and, of course, could never have begun again to 
burn. At this point too all motion would be at an end. 
Hence there could have been no origin of the solar system 
by the nebular fiery process. 

The nebular matter is called gaseous, but if so it could 
not burn. All earthy compounds are a union of gases, 
and all matter can be reduced to these by the action of 
fire. Gases enter into combination with each other, 
according to certain fixed proportions. Oxygen is the 
gas which constitutes the principle of animal life and 
flame. Things are combustible, therefore, in a greater or 
less degree, as this element enters into their formation. 
Oxygen renders carbon combustible by entering into 
carbonized bodies. Nitrogen extinguishes both life and 
flame. Common air is composed of about 27 parts of 
oxygen to 73 of nitrogen. The air thus composed is not 
inflammable, its oxygen being balanced by the larger 
quantity of nitrogen. 

If the gaseous nebular matter was air, only 27 per 
cent, of it could have been in a state of fusion or molten 
liquid fire. And even this could have been only upon 
the condition that the oxygen was separated from the 



352 COSMOGONY. 

nitrogen ; and this presupposes the prior existence of 
heat to produce the decomposition, while as yet, there 
had been no heat. Hence the gaseous air could never 
have been a fiery, molten mass. Besides, had nature 
succeeded in dividing the nitrogen from the oxygen, and 
then set the oxygen on fire with a friction match, 
the flame would have continued until every particle of 
oxygen was consumed. The fire would then have gone 
out for want of combustible material. It would make 
no difference whether this burning mass whirled in 
space or not ; indeed, if it moved it would only have 
consumed the faster. Nor would it have carried a 
particle of nitrogen with it ; for if it had this affinity for 
nitrogen after having been thus set on fire, it would 
never have separated so as to have rendered burning 
possible. But supposing nature to have been such a 
fool as wantonly to have burned up all her oxygen, she 
would thereby have been deprived of- the capacity of 
making a world or a solar system in which light, heat, 
and life would have been possible ; as without oxygen 
neither of these can exist ; and how much less possible 
in the nascent condition of a planet ? 

Nebidar Matter Vapor — It could not Burn. 

We have seen that Prof. Proctor declares that the first 
condition of nebular matter was vaporous. Vapor is 
water slightly expanded, but unchanged in its chemical 
composition. Water is a compound of oxygen and hy- 
drogen. The ingredients are one-ninth of hydrogen 
and eight-ninths of oxygen. It is a well-known fact 
that heat expands water into vapor, and cold condenses 
it again into water, and this presupposes a variety of 
temperature ; but when the whole matter of the solar 
system was nebulous vapor, there was no law to produce 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, UNSCIENTIFIC. 353 

change of temperature ; for there can be no heat with- 
out the motion of matter to produce friction or light ; 
and at this period all was vapor, not a particle of which 
would ever move except by heat and its absence, cold, 
and these terms imply matter moving, or expansion and 
condensation, which is the effect of its motion, and not 
its cause. 

The conclusion from which is, that if all the matter 
of the solar system was once vapor, such must it have 
ever remained, so far as the ability of nature was con- 
cerned. If it could ha\ e condensed into water, it would 
prove that it was approximating an ice period instead of 
a molten state. The fact that a large proportion of the 
globe is now covered with water, all of which, according 
to the nebular theory, was once vapor, goes to prove 
that the cloudy period was followed by a colder one, 
instead of one of fire, as cold would be required to con- 
dense vapor into water. It is evident then that this 
vaporous compound could no more have caught fire, 
supposing it to have been in the gaseous condition it is 
now, than can the Atlantic Ocean or our atmosphere 
take fire. The only possibility of the nebulous vapor 
taking fire would be by the separation of its gases ; and 
this could only be done by the application of extraneous 
fire, which did not exist, as the nebula was first. 

Let us, however, suppose that the one-ninth of its 
hydrogen was separated from its eight-ninths of oxygen, 
and that dead, unknowing nature should have set the 
oxygen on fire with a friction match. One of two results 
would follow : either the fire must be quenched, or all 
the oxygen would be consumed. The first could not 
have occurred, for the one-ninth, the hydrogen gas of 
water or vapor, could not stop the burning of eight- 
ninths of its oxygen gas. Besides, hydrogen gas being 



354 ■ COSMOGONY. 

of less specific gravity than oxygen, it would ascend 
into space never to return. The hydrogen would also 
become so expanded by the heat produced by eight- 
ninths of the matter out of v/hich nature was to make 
the solar system that it would be driven off in space, 
beyond the power of nature to combine it again with 
the oxygen, even supposing it had not been consumed. 
But nature could not work in these opposite directions 
— separating gases and then recombining them — and 
that violently, too, because it must have been done 
while the burning was going on. If the conflagration 
could not be arrested, then the other result must follow 
— namely, the whole of the oxygen would be consumed 
— that is, eight-ninths of the material out of which 
nature was going to make or evolve the solar system 
would be totally destroyed. Now she finds to her cost 
that she had made a fatal blunder in attempting to 
make a system of planets and a sun upon the red-hot 
nebular hypothesis, having only one-ninth of the matter 
necessary left, and not a particle of oxygen to give light 
and heat wherewith to produce and continue animal and 
vegetable life. Poor, foolish nature ! to begin making 
a world by burning up her essential materials ! 

If Hoinogeneous — Could Not Burn, 

Professor Huxley defines nebular matter to be homo- 
geneous, which means of the same kind — atoms of a 
single element, having no chemical or electrical pecu- 
liarity. There was not, according to Prof. Proctor and 
the Laplace school, a particle of oxygen, hydrogen, 
nitrogen, or carbon in all the matter out of which the 
solar system emerged- Had these existed, which con- 
stitute the widest extremes of material elements, and in 
some of their modifications include the matter of the 



LAPLACE THEORY — UNSCIENTIFIC. 355 

whole world, then it was not homogeneous. If the 
claim advanced be abandoned in order to avoid this 
fatal conclusion, then the philosophers of this school 
must take the other horn of the dilemma — namely, that 
instead of the matter being nebulous cloud it consisted 
of all the chemical solids and fluids which now exist, 
especially in the inorganic world. 

Let some power endow the atoms of the nebulous 
homogeneous matter with these gaseous forms giving 
them affinity for each other, and being in a liquid state 
they would embrace each other, and all the solids and 
fluids of inorganic nature would almost instantaneously 
be formed. The operation would necessarily consume 
no more time than the incorporation of a quart each of 
alkali and acid when put together, for the endowment 
must have been universal, as the subsequent formation 
of the compounds is universal. This endowment gave 
birth to the laws of nature, which are not abstract myths 
existing before nature, but inhere in the atoms them- 
selves, according to which they now combine. This 
endowment, this cosmogony, was a work of which the 
matter knew nothing, and was incapable of performing. 
This therefore necessitates and introduces a creation 
and a Creator. This theory of a beginning of things 
alone gives us the solution of their existence, and is de- 
manded equally by science, philosophy, and the Bible 
record, and vindicates the axiom, " From nothing 
nothing comes." 

There is not an atom of matter in our planet that is 
not endowed with an affinity for some other atom. 
Combinations of this variety of matter constitute things, 
not the simplest two atoms of which did nebular matter 
possess : it was simply one thing. As things exist, they 
could not have come from the nebulous matter which 



356 

did not possess them ; for things cannot evolve unless 
they were first involved : they must therefore have come 
from the hand and mind of a living, intelligent Being, 
with power adequate to their production. We have 
therefore formulated two axioms deduced from the facts 
and phenomena of this great subject of creation : 

From nebula nothing comes that is. 

From God all things come that are. 

We have seen that, according to Prof. Proctor's theory 
of the cooling of the sun and planets, or the Laplace 
theory, which he adopts, the congelation began on the 
surface, and continued toward the center. We propose 
to show that this theory is exactly opposed to the 
natural law of cooling liquid bodies, which invariably 
cool first at the bottom ; and if the body be a globe 
having a center of gravity, this center is the bottom, and 
therefore the first part cooled. It is a law of tempera- 
ture that heated particles of fluid or liquid, from water 
to the most sublimated ether, ascend, and that cold ones 
descend. When the water in a steam-boiler begins to 
boil and bubble on the surface, you can place your hand 
on the crown-sheet without injury, though it is here the 
whole of the water is heated. Supposing the boiler to 
be without tubes, the water is always of a lower temper- 
ature next the bottom than anywhere else, and regularly 
increases as the surface is approached. 

So with the steam, — the vapor: the hottest, dryest, and 
most expanded steam, and therefore the furthest removed 
from a solid, is in the dome, and at the highest part of 
that. The philosophy of it is that as fast as the particles 
of water lying upon the crown-sheet become heated in 
the least degree higher than those above them, they rise, 
while the colder particles descend to take their place, 
which in turn also heat and rise. Thus all the water in 



LAPLACE THEORY UNSCIENTIFIC. 357 

the boiler is thrown into motion, describing circles. As 
the heated particles rise and the colder ones descend, 
it follows that those on the surface will be first heated, 
and will continue to be the hottest, as cooling does not 
reverse this natural law. 

If liquid fire, the earth cooled first in the center. 

If the vaporous nebula was once all in a state of fusion 
— a molten sea of liquid fire, which cooled and hardened 
before it was consumed — then the part first cooled and 
hardened was at' the center of gravity, or in the exact 
center of the molten earth ; while that part which was 
hottest and most expanded was the surface, therefore the 
furthest removed from hard formation, and never could 
become hard until the entire mass below was first solidi- 
fied. So it is with the atmosphere. The hot air in our 
dwellings rises to the ceiling, while the cold currents 
descend by being displaced. So also is it with the 
heating of the atmosphere by the sun. The stratum of 
air lying upon the surface of the earth has the highest 
temperature. The rays of the sun coming first in con- 
tact with the particles of air on the outer verge of the 
atmosphere heats them first, which speed their way 
below, displacing the colder particles until the air on the 
surface of the earth is heated the highest, and every 
degree of ascension shows a lower temperature. 

\\^e have used the phrases above and below, but it 
must be remembered that the moving force is not in the 
cold particles or regions, but wholly in those heated. 
It is the heat which gives rise to their motion, and com- 
pels them to seek their natural cold temperature, where 
they may recover their lost equilibrium. The motion of 
the cold particles is produced by their being forced out 
of their place in space. They must always move 



358 COSMOGONY. 

toward colder ones than those which displaced them, 
and always move in circles. Thus we have seen that 
the hypothesis of the nebulous, fiery origin of the planets 
and their subsequent cooling is in palpable contradiction 
to the well-known facts of science, and therefore is 
wholly fanciful and false. 

Prof. Proctor assumes that the mass of fiery nebular 
matter was endowed with the principle of gravity, and 
moved on its axis. This mass was the sun, whose origin 
was the work of fire, whose cooling and gravity gave it 
motion on its axis and made it the sun as we now behold it. 
The argument is that the sun has a motion on its axis, 
and that its gravity was produced by the cooling of its 
crust, and this because it was previously a mass of fire. 
But as these are results that depend upon the prior ex- 
istence of the nebula on fire, and as we have shown that 
it never was on fire, therefore Prof. Proctor's whole 
theory of the origin of the solar system is erroneous. 
But for the sake of argument, let us suppose the fiery 
nebula to have existed : the question is. Did it have 
gravity, and did that gravity produce the diurnal motion 
of the shapeless mass from west to east upon its axis ? 

It must be borne in mind that all the moving bodies 
in space are spheres, globes, leaving us to conclude that 
this form is essential to their regular motions, and we shall 
presently show that the sun and planets must be spheres, 
in order to perpetuate the reciprocal motions which they 
perform. Make a cube of one of them, or give one a 
flat surface, and that instant it would cease to be a sun 
or a planet ; and as a consequence to have rotary motion. 
The notion that the revolving of the planets, moving at 
the rate of speed they do, made them round is absurd — 
that is, supposing them to have been a plastic nebular 
mass to begin with ; for the high velocity would have 



LAPLACE THEORY UNSCIENTIFIC. 359 

given them the form of an arrow or a tube. That the 
sphericity of the earth's atmosphere, being fluid and gas- 
eous, is not thus destroyed by its motion, proves that the 
earth never received its shape by its diurnal motion. 

The theory, therefore, that the bodies in the solar sys- 
tem became globes by revolving on their axes cannot be 
true, as they must have been globes before they could 
have thus moved ; and if they had been of any other 
shape, and were set in motion by any extraneous power, 
they would have ceased their motion on the withdrawal 
of that power. It must be remembered that the recipro- 
cal forces of the planetary system did not exist at the 
time we are considering, as the planets themselves did 
not exist. We are dealing with the origin of the sun, 
which first existed, and by whose motions the planets of 
our system were produced — according to Proctor. In 
order to give any degree of plausibility to the theory of the 
fiery origin of the solar system, the sun should have been 
first formed, and should have had a diurnal revolution 
on its axis ;■ but this motion no body with a surface of an 
equal temperature like that of the sun can have. 

The sun, from whence proceed the rays which pro- 
duce the light and heat equally from its entire surface, 
can have no other gravity than that which holds itself 
together. Though its entire surface may be a body of 
electricity (and probably is), yet this does not give it 
polarity, or negative and positive poles, without which it 
is not a magnet, to be which it must have attraction as 
well as repulsion. So far, therefore, as gravity is con- 
cerned, the sun is only a positive, and continually repels 
all the planets in the solar system ; and were there not 
attractive forces in the planets themselves which impel 
them toward the sun, they would be thrown, by its su- 
perior power of repulsion, beyond its influence, and our 



360 COSMOGONY. 

solar system would cease to exist. But the planets have 
the endowment of inductive magnets. 

Laws Governing Magnetics. 

It is a well-known law of magnetics that two positives 
resist each other ; another law is that two negatives re- 
sist each other, while the negative and positive attract 
and come together unless resisted by an equally strong 
positive. This law likewise governs heated and lighted 
bodies : the higher temperature resists the lower ; and 
experiments go to show that light and heat play a very 
important part in the electrical phenomena of the uni- 
verse — not only destroying the adhesive attraction of all 
compounds, separating them into their atoms and ele- 
ments, but also the electrical polarity of bodies. Heat a 
horse-shoe magnet cherry red, and you destroy its polar- 
ity ; nor does it regain that quality by cooling. In 
order to restore its polarity, it must be heated red-hot, 
then cooled by plunging it suddenly into water or other 
liquid, and then magnetized by a battery. This piece of 
steel has now a negative at one extremity and a positive 
pole at the other. If now you divide it into two, or sub- 
divide it into a thousand or any number of fragments, 
each piece will exhibit the same phenomenon of a nega- 
tive and a positive pole. The following experiment 
illustrates all the phenomena of the solar system except 
the planetary revolutions. 

Fasten pith-balls by threads to an insulated rod 
charged from a galvanic battery, and they will become 
suspended, and will surround the rod at equal distances 
from each other. Thus we have the rod as the sun, 
from whence proceeds the repellant force, and the 
planets in the shape of pith-balls. If you cut the 
threads by which they are held, they will be thrown 



LAPLACE THEORY UNSCIENTIFIC. 361 

from their orbit by the repulsion of the rod center. If 
while suspended you place a lighted candle near one of 
these pith-planets the ball will recede from the candle 
as far as the thread will permit : so we have suspension, 
repulsion, and attraction, by electricity and heat — the 
centripetal and centrifugal forces, if you please, of the 
solar system. 

Remember, now, that two lighted and heated bodies 
are positives, and repel each other; that the -lighting 
and heating of the solar system emanate from the central 
sun ; that the sun has the same electrical surface on 
every side, as well as that which produces light and 
heat ; that one-half of each planet is always lighted and 
heated, because one-half the face of each is always pre- 
sented to the sun. Being positives, the sun and- planets 
continually repel each other. The planets would there- 
fore be thrown off into space by the sun, beyond her 
influence, were there no attractive force equal to the 
repellant ; but this repellant force is counterbalanced 
by the electrical condition of the half of the planets 
turned from the sun, which are always cold and dark, 
and consequently negative ; and as negative and posi- 
tive attract each other, this gives the planets their 
tendency to move toward the sun. Thus we see that 
as exactly one-half of each planet is lighted, heated, and 
electrified by the sun, while the opposite half of each 
remains dark, cold, and demagnetized ; therefore each 
planet is a magnet, with the two poles equally divided, 
holding each in its exact orbit. This negative endow- 
ment of the planets solves another problem of the 
phenomena in the solar system — namely, the suspension 
of the sun in the center of the system. The negative 
pole of each planet draws the sun toward itself, and 
forms a balance of power around the central orb and 



362 COSMOGONY. 

holds it in place — the sun being always and uniformly 
positive. This is upon the principle that negative and 
positive bodies attract each other. 

The knowledge we receive from these laws, it will be 
observed, is absolutely limited to the facts of suspension, 
attraction, and repulsion, and affords not a ray of light 
as to whence came this organized mechanism, or the 
impulse which first set the planetary system in motion. 
Upon the theory of the negative and positive poles of a 
planet we can also understand the continuance of its 
motion on its axis, and its annual revolution after having 
been set in motion, which motion we hold could only 
have originated in a living being possessed of mind. For 
instance, as the earth turns on its axis, one extremity of 
its dark side is being continually lighted and heated, 
while the other extremity is becoming cold and dark — 
the one negative and the other positive — which forces 
being exactly equal, perpetuate its motion. For example, 
that part of the earth which the sunlight is leaving is the 
strongest positive, because it has faced the sun all day ; 
while that upon which the sun is rising is the strongest 
negative, because it has been deprived of the sun's rays 
all night ; and as the strongest positive and the strongest 
negative have the greatest affinity or inclination for each 
other, they therefore impel these extreme sections to 
chase each other, and hence to keep the earth whirling 
on its axis. Of course, what is true of the earth is true 
of every other planet in the solar system. From these 
facts we draw the conclusion that as it is the light, heat, 
and magnetism of the sun which make magnets of the 
planets, and as these are essential to planetary motion, 
both diurnal and annual, therefore the whole system was 
made simultaneously, and as perfect as it now is — the 
organization producing the susceptibility of planetary 



LAPLACE THEORY UNSCIENTIFIC. 363 

motion, and not, as Proctor says, the motions producing 
the organization. 

Nor is it true that the sun, as a body of nebulous fire, 
ever had or has now a motion on its axis, as no body of 
equal temperature and magnetic surface — which is known 
to be the condition of the surface of. the sun — can have. 
This fact alone is fatal to the theory of the nebulous 
origin of the solar system, the starting-point of which 
is that the sun itself became a globe by revolution on 
its axis ; by this motion also from time to time she threw 
off from her surface portions of herself, out of which 
were formed all the planets. These are results, let it 
be remembered : if the cause never existed, neither did 
these as its effects. 

All Power is Mental. 

This conclusion naturally suggests the question, 
Whence is the power derived which nature manifests ? 
We answer. In mind. In vindication of this proposi- 
tion we introduce the common argument of cause and 
effect. Nothing is more universally conceded than that 
there must be a cause for every effect. It is another 
axiom that the cause must be adequate to produce the 
effect. It is also equally true that all secondary or more 
remote causes are themselves effects — effects of effects. 
This fact is as comprehensive as the phenomena of the 
world. That is, there is not a thing that moves or is 
susceptible of being moved by some other inorganic ele- 
ment, or that which is lifeless, but what is an effect of 
some other such composite thing ; it matters not whether 
it is the simplest atom, forming a part of our world, or 
the largest and grandest stellar orb. 

If, then, all things are effects, it is evident there is no 
cause, strictly speaking, in all nature. Hence, the Cause 



364 COSMOGONY. 

which gave things this endowment and susceptibility of 
affecting and moving each other must be both super- 
natural and of prior intelligent existence. To state the 
argument concisely, we say : Nature exists, and every- 
thing she contains is susceptible of motion. These 
motions are interdepending, from the lowest to the high- 
est. Motion or inclination to move (pressure) manifests 
power ; but as motions are results growing out of prior 
endowment, they did not originate the power : it must 
have had its source in the mind of a Being capable of 
forming and endowing the atoms, or any combination of 
them, which includes all natural existences, with the 
chemical and electrical peculiarities they possess. 

To the argument we may add, that this endowment 
gave rise to what are called the Laws of Nature, giving 
them birth, which, being the results or effects of the 
things of nature, never originated anything. The solar 
system moves, and every atom it contains possesses grav- 
ity and pressure, which induce or incline them to move ; 
but these qualities are inherent, and therefore must have 
come from a cause outside of nature. By these acts 
nature was born, after which, but not before, it is proper 
to say, things are changed and modified by the laws of 
nature, or affect each other according to inherent and 
fixed principles. The endowment of the atoms and their 
various combinations, forming the bodies of the solar 
system and the subdivisions they contain, gave birth to 
science and called philosophy into existence. 

To illustrate the fact that power is mental, let us sup- 
pose a case. A man has observed that heat expands 
water into steam ; that by confining water in a boiler 
with fire under it, pressure is produced ; that to let the 
steam escape and come in contact with a piece of iron 
or other object moves that object, and that its motion is 



LAPLACE THEORY UNSCIENTIFIC. 365 

power, which will be felt if it is resisted. There he sits 
at a table, with paper and pencils before him. He thinks, 
he calculates, he makes marks, and finally draws upon 
paper the draught of a five thousand horse-power steam- 
engine. Supposing him to be a practical mechanic of 
sufficient skill to make all its parts according to the 
drawn dimensions, he constructs the engine and boiler 
which, when put on board the ocean-steamer, drive her 
through the water with a power equal to that of five 
thousand horses; and yet this was the result of the thought 
of one man. Hence his mind exerted upon this vessel the 
power of five thousand horses ; yet this is a manifesta- 
tion of what is called physical power. It is evident, 
however, that there is no reason for making the discrim- 
ination. Although we here see an exhibition of mental 
power, yet it is not original force, as man himself is a 
creature whose whole physical, moral, and mental 
organism is an effect, and not a cause, and therefore 
derives all its phenomena and susceptibility from the 
sole first cause, resident in the mind of the Creator. 

Relation of cause and effect demonstrates Creation. 

It is evident, from this view of nature and her laws, 
that the origin of molecular motion, organic and inor- 
ganic, the result of which is power, is mental. This in- 
cludes the motions of every intelligent creature in the 
universe as well as the phenomena of the entire solar 
system, each of which is but an effect following another 
effect, and as such cannot exist without an adequate 
cause. These effects are so many fingers, pointing with 
unerring certainty to the prior existence of the great 
first cause, who involved in nature all her peculiarities 
and possibilities, every movement of which, from the 
falling of a leaf to the rolling of the planets, is but 



366 COSMOGONY. 

an unfolding of these involved mental dynamics. The 
comparative superiority of the machinery of nature 
over that made by man, although involving the same 
principles — for there is not a movement in human 
mechanics that is not borrowed from nature — is seen 
in the fact that nature's machinery needs no human or 
angelic hand to set it in motion. 

As an illustration of the production of one of God's 
machines from seed, let us take the peach. Like all 
other seeds, this has incorporated in it the embryo tree, 
yet not an atom of it would ever move of itself, and is 
not therefore a law of nature. Neither is the soil such 
a law, nor yet the light and heat received from the sun. 
The soil may contain all the chemical properties adapted 
to form the seed, and it may be environed by the 
requisite atmospheric agencies ; but if the seed was 
not planted in the soil, still there would be no germina- 
tion ; but if so planted, the circle is closed and we get a 
partial view of the law of vegetable reproduction — the 
essential elements of which are the organic soil, light, 
heat, moisture, and the atmosphere, with its carbon, all 
of which are charged with electricity. 

But to obtain even an imperfect knowledge of this 
wonderfully complicated law, it must be understood 
that plant growth and maturity imply the existence and 
motions of the earth as an astronomical body ; and this 
also implies the perfect existence and motion of the 
whole planetary system, as well as those of their central 
sun. Suppose the seed was planted on that side of the 
earth turned from the sun, and that the earth did not 
revolve on its axis. As that side of the earth would 
therefore be always dark and cold, not one of the parti- 
cles of the planted seed would ever move, except 
possibly to decompose and thus move toward death 



LAPLACE THEORY — UNSCIENTIFIC. 367 

instead of toward organic life. Not an atom of its shell 
or kernel would expand, which in order to germinate 
requires a sufficient degree of heat to burst the shell. 
To thus expand the kernel requires a substance which 
will pass freely through the pores of the shell without 
expanding it ; for if each were expanded equally there 
would still be no bursting of the shell, and consequently 
no growth. 

Atmospheric air cannot penetrate the walls of the 
seed, else the kernel would have been decomposed in a 
few days after it had fallen ripe from the tree, just as 
the rest of the peach was decomposed. The substance 
which penetrates the shell and expands the kernel must 
be some one of the modifications of electricity, whose 
particles are so minute that they penetrate and permeate 
every atom in nature. Coming thus in contact with 
the atoms of the kernel, it expands each one of them. 
This expansion moves them, the motion creates friction, 
and the friction produces heat, which added to the ex- 
pansive force bursts the shell, giving the properties of the 
kernel access to those the soil contains, which are chem- 
ically and electrically attracted to itself, giving rise to 
germination. Thus life begins : the germ commences 
and continues to grow, and when the plant reaches 
the surface it absorbs atmospheric carbonic acid, and 
finally becomes the mature tree. 

The tree has the faculty of decomposing the air and 
of retaining the carbon after having changed it into car- 
bonic acid gas, and also of rejecting the greater part of 
its other constituent gase-s. This operation produces 
the motion of all the atoms of the contiguous air, whose 
friction against each other creates heat. This expands 
them, sending off the colder particles and returning the 
warmer, each forming a current and seeking to restore 



36S COSMOGONY, 

the atmospheric equiUbrium of temperature and chem- 
ical affinity. This motion of the air is what is called the 
blowing of the wind, of course on a small scale ; but its 
cause is the same as that which produces the hurricane 
or the tornado. 

We have supposed the peach seed to have been plant- 
ed on a perpetually dark side of the earth ; and as sun- 
light is essential to vegetable growth, the diurnal revolu- 
tion of the earth is a necessity, and therefore introduces 
this motion of the planet as another of the elements in 
the great law of vegetation. We have also supposed the 
seed to have been planted in a dry soil. But as moist- 
ure is essential to vegetable growth, dew or rain must fall 
to prepare it to do its work. But these can only come 
from the atmosphere, and as water is not one of the 
constituents of air, it must be drawn into it by some 
principle adapted to the purpose. Hence atmospheric 
evaporation by the agency of the sun. Water is thus 
taken up, principally from the seas, lakes, and rivers, 
until the air becomes so highly saturated that its gravity 
precipitates it to the earth, and we say it rains. But the 
water would fall again directly into the bodies from 
whence it had been taken up, were it not for the move- 
ment of the clouds. This movement is produced by the 
unequal expansion of the air principally resulting from 
the ecliptic motion of the earth, giving it its seasons, 
while its revolution on its axis perpetually warms and 
cools different sections unequally. 

These interdepending functions of nature — and they 
comprehend its whole machinery in motion — present us" 
with two fundamental facts of natural science : First, 
that not the simplest plant could have lived in any nas- 
cent or half-formed condition of the globe or solar 
system, or in one less perfect than that which now exists: 



LAPLACE THEORY — UNSCIENTIFIC. 369 

and without vegetation for animal food animals could 
not have existed, and could not now. The second fact 
is, that the laws of nature are not abstractions, suscepti- 
ble of having existed before the formations and organiza- 
tions of nature, but chemically and electrically they grow 
out of the formations themselves. In a word, they are 
the reciprocal effects which all atoms or compound 
bodies produce upon each other, and give rise to their 
various motions, the result of which is power ; but the 
endowment being an effect necessitates a prior cause, 
and as the effects manifest intelligent adaptation, there- 
fore He who endowed nature thus was intelligent. Here 
we have the only philosophic and scientific cause of all 
things, — a Creator to whose Mind must be ascribed all 
the power the solar system exhibits, giving us the demon- 
stration that all power is mental^ and all nature is the 
work of God. 



CHAPTER XIIL 

PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 

Contiguity Produces Races. 

In considering the natural causes which affect the 
variation of species into races, that of sensible psycho- 
logical impression applying to animals, and of sympathetic 
impression producing similar 'effects among plants, have 
been entirely overlooked by naturalists. In relation to 
plants, it is well known that contiguity of planting modi- 
fies vegetable production. Plant two kinds of potatoes, 
differing in size, shape, and color, in close proximity, and 
the product will be unlike either, but a mixture of both. 
Plant red and yellow tomatoes together and the product 
will be red and yellow striped. So it will be with corn 
and beans, and indeed with all vegetables and plants of 
the same species. Notwithstanding these marked vari- 
eties, not a single vegetable ever lost its substantial 
identity ; men have never yet " gathered grapes of 
thorns, or figs of thistles." That question was thus de- 
cided scientifically by the Great Naturalist, more than 
1,800 years ago, and it so remains. That certain species 
of plants are adapted to certain climates and latitudes 
presents no objection to the theory of simultaneous 
and perfect creation, as well as production in a certain 
locality, from which all succeeding generations have 
been distributed over the face of the earth, and with this 
local exception, all are exotics. The following poetic 
passage so fully and naturally explains the phenomenon 
of seed and plant distribution that we here introduce it : 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 37 1 

Thus the soil was formed, plants of 
Every species set therein, blooming 
With ripe and luscious fruit, all in 
Finished perfection, ready to 
Entertain the new-made living man. 
Seed precipitate from these, carried 
By the moving winds of heaven 
And commerce of the world to every 
Clime of earth, lodged in every 
Soil and clime, but alone productive 
In those congenial, thriving within 
The clime for which they were designed. 
The Torrid Zone received and 
Nursed her own. They lived, and 
After their kind yielded fruit whose 
Seed was in itself. 

The Frigid Zone received the same ; 
They chilled, more v^eakly grew, 
And then extinct became. 

The differences among races of plants are not so 
marked in feature as those of animals, and this fact finds 
its solution in the animal endowment of organs of sense, 
which give the power to receive and transmit mental im- 
pressions. This brings us to the consideration of these 
faculties, which we find to be the common possession of 
every living thing having the power of self-motion. We 
remark in the first place that every animal or insect, 
however high or low its rank in the scale of being, having 
the faculty of self-motion, possesses intelligence ; the dif- 
ferences among them being not in kind but in degree. 
In this assumption we include man as well. To draw 
lines, therefore, of demarcation, on one side of which 
intellect is ranked, and on the other instinct, we hold to 
be without justification either in science, philosophy, or 
Holy Writ. In proof of this, it is only necessary to un- 
derstand the conditions of self-motion : for as motion is 
an effect, it m_ust have its antecedent cause. Essential 
to this phenomenon is the possession of at least one of 
the five senses, which are the channels of communication 
between the brain, as the organ of the mind, and exter- 
nal objects. 



372 COSMOGONY. 

A man, or any other animal, is touched by a coal of 
fire, and instantly the nerves of sensation are affected, 
which act as telegraphic wires, conducting the electric 
force to all parts of the body, and convey an impression 
to the brain that some nerve is attacked. The mind 
thinks about it, and as the result a pain is felt which 
would not be the case if the mind were inoperative, as 
in sound sleep. In cases of suffocation during sleep, 
before the impression becomes sufficiently strong to 
awaken, it is often too late for escape. Now, by a man- 
date of the will, the same force is dispatched through the 
voluntary nerves, having their source in the intellectual 
organs of the brain, or physiologically speaking, "the 
brain proper." The force dispatched is of sufficient 
strength to move the part menaced or the whole animal 
from the seat of danger and pain. This is done by the 
electric agent of the mind contracting the muscles of the 
body to which it is adapted, just as though the muscles 
of the arm were brought in contact with the negative and 
positive poles of a charged galvanic battery. The mo- 
tion is the result of the motive to be relieved from fur- 
ther danger. The consciousness of the pain, or that it 
was pain, was the result of the appreciation of its nature 
which an unknowing, inanimate thing could not possess. 

It is evident that the operation above described in- 
volves the action of the intellectual faculties, such as 
casualty, comparison, and will, necessitating volition, 
which are the prominent manifestations of mental action, 
and are precisely the same whether they exist in man or 
the lower animals. As all are similarly constructed, with 
nerves of sensation and volition, organs of sense and the 
two brains, and as all act exactly alike in similar circum- 
stances of exposure, all are intellectual. Indeed, to call 
the same action instinct in the lower animals and intei- 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 373 

lect in man is to give the animals the pre-eminence, 
ranking them as gods, who are supposed to know with- 
out thinking, or ever having learned. Note also the fact 
that the faculty called instinct in the lower animals is 
equally the possession of the human infant. As the 
child becomes more intelligent, at what point does in- 
stinct cease and intellect begin ? 

Comparative Order of Mmd, 

As it is through the mind that physical peculiarities 
are transmitted to offspring, it follows that that species of 
animal possessing mind in the highest degree will pre- 
sent the greatest differences of physical feature ; and 
as man is the animal thus distinguished, his offspring 
must be thus characterized ; and f«.cts bear ample tes- 
timony to the truth of the theory. Because various 
classes of animals have vertebral formations Mr. Darwin 
concludes that they therefore all had a single progenitor. 
Speaking of this he says : " The homological construc- 
tion of the w^hole frame in the members of the same 
class is intelligible, if we admit the descent from a 
comm.on progenitor." (Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 31.) 
On the same principle it might be argued that the moon 
was once a star, and that these again were the sun, 
because all are spherical and shine ; but let us see if 
this similarity of structure is not intelligible on other 
grounds, and upon other principles. If twenty houses 
were built all upon the same architectural plan, would 
that prove them to have had a common progenitor, or 
that one man built them all ? 

There are certain fundamental principles of archi- 
tecture common to every house — a foundation, roof, and 
walls. To leave any one of these out, whatever was 
made it would not be a house. If there were no founda- 



374 COSMOGONY. 

tion for walls there could be no walls ; if there were no 
walls to support a roof, there could be no roof, and if 
there was no roof there could be no house. Without a 
roof it might be a walled yard, but that is all. To 
make a house, therefore, without all these would be as 
impossible as to make two hills without a hollow be- 
tween. So every living animal that has power to move 
must be endowed with vital organs, organs of sense, 
brain, nerves, and instruments of locomotion. It is 
quite immaterial how widely animals may differ in 
shape, size, or color, or however peculiar may be their 
mode of motion — none could exist and lack one of these 
faculties, though in general construction they may differ 
as much even as a man and a lobster. For instance, 
can a being be made»without an eye and yet be able to 
see ? Or can a thing of voluntary power be made with- 
out instruments of locomotion ? 

If intelligence cannot do this, can blind nature, not 
having the sense of an insect, make a thing without eyes 
and yet that can see ? without faculties to move, and 
yet that can move ? If not, could the power that 
brought living 'creatures into existence have proceeded 
upon any other principle of construction than that of 
endowing all varieties with such faculties ? and if they 
perform the same functions would they not be substan- 
tially the same ? In the philosophy of mechanics it is 
a well established axiom that the same result cannot be 
produced without the employment of substantially the 
same principle. In the construction of machines — say 
steam engines — one may be made to vary from another 
in so marked a manner that a novice might suppose 
another principle of construction was adopted ; but let 
a keen-eyed mechanic inspect them and he would at 
once point out their substantial similarity. 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 375 

We therefore conclude that the substantial oiganic 
similarity of structure and peculiarity of shape, size, 
color, etc., pertain to races and not to species, and 
demonstrate them to be in harmony with the law of 
unity and identity of species, each having a progenitor 
differing as much from each other as their offspring have 
differed in all generations. No matter who or what 
brought the originals into existence, he or it was com- 
pelled by philosophic necessity to construct all after a 
common model, a physiological and fundamental basis, 
and the preserved distinction of each species through 
successive generations demonstrates the existence of such 
distinction in the first progenitors. 

In contradiction of this Mr. Darwin says, that because 
all animals are similarly constructed, at least the verti- 
brates, those which have a spinal column or backbone, 
as commonly called — as, for example, a man's hand and 
a bat's wing, or the backbone of a monkey and that of 
a man, therefore the hand of man came from the wing 
of a bat, and man was once a monkey. Indeed, he 
claims that everything of vegetable and animal kind 
evolved from a single living thing, thus flatly denying the 
well-known fact of universal experience, that different 
species will not reprodure another species by crossing. 
If Mr. Darwin had called the first progenitor God, and 
ascribed to Him the creation of the first progenitors of 
each species, their natural organic existence requires and 
proclaims — we say it with due respect for his ancestors 
— he would not so nearly have proved the legitimacy of 
his pedigree. Behold, how, by bold declamation, and 
in defiance of the best known principles of philosophy, 
he reverses the whole order of nature, by claiming 
that the less produces the greater ! Thus, a fish evolves 
a bird, a bird a bat, a bat a monkey, and a monkey a 



37^ COSMOGONY. 

man. In a word, a living, moving universe came of 
itself, from inorganic, dead matter. 

He argues by implication that if there was no similarity 
of construction manifested among animals, they might 
have had no common progenitor ; in such a case God 
might have created them. He evidently supposed God 
to be a poor workman. If a monkey could have been 
made without brain, spinal column, nerves, eyes, ears, 
hands, or feet, then his theory might not be true, not 
seeming to see that such a creature of the imagination 
would have been no monkey at all. It would not even 
have been the simplest anamalcule, which can only be 
seen by the aid of the microscope, not a species of which 
is not endowed with as perfect organs as those possessed 
by the elephant. Indeed, according to the theory of evo- 
lution, the elephant's progenitors was one of these little 
creatures, a thousand of which have ample swimming 
room in a single drop of water. The argument in proof 
of this assumption is that these little animals, as well as 
the large ones, have backbone, joints, eyes, and instru- 
ments of locomotion. 

The fact of similar construction proves simply this : 
that the Creator desired a variety of animals for differ- 
ent purposes, to answer which they must be made 
peculiar in form as well as in their vital, transmissible 
organization, so that these peculiarities might be inherit- 
ed by their offspring, and yet so similar that the organs 
of life for one species would be the organs of life for 
all ; and the instruments of locomotion, to enable one 
species to go in quest of food, would be so substantially 
similar that they would serve the same purpose for all. 

Does it any more prove, because all vertebrate ani- 
mals have a similar structure, that all came from a 
single progenitor, than that because all animals have 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE, 377 

eyes they therefore had a common ancestor ? There is 
much greater similarity in the structure of eyes than of 
backbones ; besides, eyes are the universal possession 
of animals. It would therefore have been more con- 
sistant and plausible if Mr. Darwin had claimed that, 
because of the homological structure of eyes, all animals 
that can see evolved from a common progenitor ; and 
to carry the argument to its legitimate conclusion as 
Tyndall and Huxley claim it should be carried, this 
progenitor with eyes evolved from one which was inor- 
ganic and had no eyes. The argument of similar 
structure proving descent from a single original stock, 
occupies a large portion of Mr. Darwin's two-volume 
" Descent of Man," and in view of this exposure, we 
ask whether it has the least foundation in science, phil- 
osophy, or is sustained by logic -or truth ? 

Mr. Darwin s Shallow Reasoning. 

In further efforts to establish his theory Mr. Darwin 
says : " No other explanation has ever been given of the 
marvelous fact that the embryo of a man, dog, seal,' 
bat, reptile, etc., can at first hardly be distinguished 
from each other." We suppose the reason why no ex- 
planation has ever been given of this fact is to be found 
in the other fact, that no one ever assumed the ludicrous 
position that the eggs of all animals, whether of fish, 
flesh, or fowl, were homogeneous, or of the same nature, 
until Mr. Darwin thus distinguished himself. Every- 
body else seems to have understood that if they found 
an egg which seemed different from any other egg with 
which they were acquainted, or if appearing similar yet 
was found under peculiar circumstances, in order to 
know the nature of the possible animal within, it would 
be necessary to wait until it was hatched, or be informed 
by some one who knew what' kind of an egg it was. 



37^ COSMOGONY. 

JJecause the egg of a turkey and of a goose resemble 
each other, are we to infer that the embryos they contain 
are not as dissimilar as the turkey and goose which may 
be hatched from them ? Thus we have the argument of 
the " marvelous similarity of eggs, or embryos," and it 
is easy to see that it is marvelous only because it floats 
in Mr. Darwin's marvelous brain, very tnarvelously 
mixed up with similar wonders. It however furnishes 
anotlier glimpse of the same science (falsely so-called) 
which is used in the attempt to disprove the identity of 
each species, and is arrayed equally against true science, 
true philosophy, and the facts of experience, as well as 
those of both profane and sacred history. 

Mr. Darwin says (p. 31) : *'In order to understand 
the existence of rudimentary organs, we have only to 
suppose that a former progenitor possessed the parts in 
question in a perfect state, and that under changed 
habits of life they became greatly reduced, either from 
simple disuse, or through the natural selection of those 
individuals which were least encumbered with a super- 
fluous part, aided by the other means previously indica- 
ted." la order to expose the false theories of these 
so-called naturalists it is only necessary to quote them 
against th.emselves and each other. It is claimed that 
because animals having no eyes have been found in 
caves whore perpetual darkness reigned, their progenitors 
came into existence in these caves ; and the caves being 
the result of modern convulsions, therefore they could 
not have been created according to the Mosaic genesis. 
Here is a chronological case made out. To sustain the 
argument cf rudiments, however, this fact is used for an 
opposite purpose, and to teach quite another idea. 
Because perfect organs may be lost by disuse, it follows 
that the ancestors of the eyeless animals might have 
had good eyes, and therefore might have been created 
according to the Mosaic genesis. 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 379 

It is easy to see from the manner in which Mr. Darwin 
states this argument that it not only furnishes no proof 
to sustain the theory of rudiments and of development, 
but that it points to degeneracy rather. To be used for 
his purpose, he should have stated it, and adduced facts 
to sustain it, thus : In order to understand the existence 
of rudimentary organs, you must suppose that a former 
progenitor did not have them, and therefore all his 
organs were perfect, or that he had no organs at all, and 
therefore did not live, and consequently could transmit 
nothing to offspring, and was therefore no progenitor at 
all. It is unquestionable that not only rudimentary 
organs, but those of full and perfect development, may 
be lost in the course of successive generations simply 
by disuse. 

How the eyeless ani7nals became such. 

In order to account for the loss of eyes by certain 
animals, we must understand the natural law of adapta- 
tion. We suppose the progenitors of the eyeless animals 
when entering the dark caves had perfect eyes ; but 
amid perpetual darkness, they became useless, in con- 
sequence of which the next succeeding generation had 
weaker and smaller eyes, and the eyes of each succeeding 
generation became still more imperfect until at length 
there appeared those not only without eyes, but without 
the least rudiments of eyes. It is one of the best known 
laws of physiological science that use or exercise of any 
organ of sense, mind, or motion, if not carried beyond 
a certain point, increases both the size and vigor of that 
organ. We have no doubt that, if a number of gener- 
ations should succeed each other of persons having no 
use for arms, or making no use of them, there would at 
length be born children without arms, or with the faint- 



380 COSMOGONY. 

est rudiments of arms. Also that if in the succession of 
generations men should educate themselves and children 
into the belief that there was nothing in existence greater 
than themselves — and it is impossible to venerate a being 
or thing unless it is supposed to be superior — the faculty 
of veneration would not only degenerate, but become 
extinct, with not a rudiment remaining, leaving man a 
mere selfish savage. 

It is surprising that Mr. Darwin sees in this principle 
of physical transmission evidence of the doctrine of 
evolution from the less to the greater — from rudiments 
to organs, and from no rudimicnts to rudiments ; when 
in fact its whole operation is toward the degeneracy and 
loss of organs ; it is transmutation and destruction. Let 
us suppose that by disuse or any other cause a genera- 
tion of a species should lose any of its organs, would 
that deficiency change it into another species ? If the 
organ lost was a vital one, the animal would soon cease 
to live at all, and therefore could not reproduce its kind 
or any other kind. Hence the argument precludes the 
possibility of another species coming into existence. 

Thus we are forced to the conclusion that any vital 
change, such as one species must undergo while passing 
into another, implying functional modification, renders 
successive generations impossible. For instance, that 
organ in animal evolution which preceded lungs, ceasing 
to perform its function, whatever that was, the animal 
would immediately die ; and if its function was breath- 
ing, then it was not a rudiment, but lungs, and perfect 
lunp[s — for it requires perfect lungs to breathe so as to 
continue animal existence — and if it was so rudimentary 
that it did not breathe, then the animal had no life, as 
animals cannot live without breathing ; and, not being 
alive, it could evolve nothing. In the absence of all 
other proof, this argument is fatal to evolution. 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 381 

In order to establish the doctrine of evolution it must 
be shown that by use or otherwise one species became 
possessed, not of rudiments (for with these it could not 
live, and if it did not live it could not have been a pro- 
genitor at all), but perfect organs, which no progenitor 
possessed. These must have been perfect in order to be 
vital -and generative, both of which functions are incom- 
patible with .a single dead rudiment — as a heart vv^hich 
cannot perform its office in the circulation, a stomach 
w^hich will not digest food, lungs which will not breathe. 
If they do not perform these functions they are rudi- 
m.ents, and as these were the rudimentary organs in the 
progenitor, no progeny ever came from the dead thing. 
On the other hand, if it was a progenitor it must have 
possessed all the vital organs in perfection, and therefore 
was a work of creation ; for no evolutionist ever claimed 
that Dame Nature had the ability to bring into existence 
a perfect living animal at once, just as such are born of 
parentage. It must also be shown as a result of disuse, 
natural selection, or generative transmission, that a suc- 
ceeding generation had become so far changed in its 
vital structure that it could not produce its own species ; 
and having thus failed, how could it produce another ? 
Instead of this, it would become extinct at death ; for if 
such qualities allied themselves wdth any succeeding 
generation, they must have been involved in the original 
progenitor, as evolution implies prior involution : a 
thing cannot be taken out of another which does not pos- 
sess it, at least in embryo. 

If, therefore, there was but a single progenitor, as Mr. 
Darwin claims, which as we have seen was constitution- 
ally incapable of evolving another species, then there 
never was but a single species. Each individual of a 
species might by circumstances be made to differ, in 



382 COSMOGONY. 

size, shape, and color, from every other, forming numer- 
ous races ; but as long as the variations did not affect 
the vital organization, disqualifying it for reproducing 
its kind, there would still exist but a single species ; and 
if the change did thus affect the vital organs, the result 
would have been that when that single species died, all 
would have become extinct, and evolution would have 
had to begin again, but with no better chances of success 
than before. 

This, however absurd, is not the end of the absurdity ; 
for in the same passage Mr. Darwin reaches the conclu- 
sion that because animals lose perfect organs they acquire 
them by habit and natural selection. In the argument 
he assumes the untenable position that animals have 
superfluous organs otherwise than as Monstrosities. For 
example, if eyes had become superfluous, because of 
being surrounded by total darkness, precluding the pos- 
sibility of exercise, a generaj:ion would be born without 
eyes ; therefore the common progenitor of all species 
had no eyes itself ; but yet in the succession of genera- 
tions transmitted good eyes to its offspring, because of 
being surrounded by light. 

As this principle extends equally to all physical organs, 
therefore a generation succeeding another, and dwelling 
in noiseless solitude, would in time so physically degen- 
erate that there would come one having no ears. This 
is a valuable hint to the deaf. If sound, by natural 
selection, will develop new and perfect ears, it certainly 
should repair defective hearing. Those afflicted with 
deafness, therefore, should go where there is plenty of 
thundering noise. We were about to say that Darwinism 
reverses all the physical laws of voluntary and involun- 
tary transmission of organic qualities ; but in fact it 
does not go deep enough into the philosophy of the laws 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 383 

of nature to comprehend them : at any rate, if any of 
these self-styled naturalists have done so they have not 
given publicity to the discovery, which proves either that 
they wish to deceive or that the charge of superficiality 
is just. 

The absurdity of ^^ Natural Selection^ 

As the loss of organs is the result of disuse and dis- 
taste, it follows that the gaining of new ones is by exer- 
cise and taste. Taste exists upon one of two con- 
ditions : First, seeing something in the possession of 
another which the beholder covets ; or, secondly, by 
conceiving something which does not exist, but which 
we would desire to possess. In regard to the first, we 
remark that it presupposes the existence of some phys- 
ical peculiarity which the original progenitor desired to 
possess, and which, if the desire existed at all, could 
have had no effect upon it, as there were no animals but 
itself in existence ; it was therefore confined to the 
necessity of transmitting its exact likeness to its offspring. 
As this similarity must be perpetual, therefore natural 
selection could never have had a starting-point, even 
though the original progenitor existed. And this is the 
fundamental principle upon which all the varieties of 
animals and their peculiarities have come into existence ! 

But suppose a start were made, according to the theory 
of natural selection, from a number of animals, of the 
same species, then its practical operation would be as 
follows : A monkey sees another with a shorter tail than 
his own, and falls in love with him on this account, 
though he has often felt the necessity of having a longer 
one whereby he might clamber more safely among the 
branches of the trees, coiling it round which he could 
reach or swing further out in gathering his food. What 



384 COSMOGONY. 

a foolish monkey, to indulge such a desire ! And this 
is one of our nearest relations, about which Darwin so 
gravely discourses ! But suppose the monkey should 
see another who by some accident had lost his tail 
altogether, and should fall in love with him. According 
to the theory of natural selection, the offspring of the 
tailless monkey would be born without tails, provided 
the male had succeeded in convincing liis female com- 
panion of the superiority of tailless monkeys, which, 
we may easily imagine, would require a very ingenious 
discourse on the beauty of short tails, or rather of no 
tails. His mate might object on practical grounds. 

Would they not be much more liable to fall from trees, 
and be compelled to cling closely to the trunk or large 
limbs, while the food they desired was far out on the 
branches, which their long-tailed brothers could safely 
reach. Would not the lady monkey have the best of the 
argument ? 

Is it any more likely that monkeys should desire their < 
offspring to be born monsters — as they would be without 
tails — than that human parents should desire theirs to 
be born without eyes ? But whatever modifications 
might have been effected and transmitted by taste, they 
were limited absolutely to those organs coming within 
observation, and in no case or degree could have affected 
the involuntary vital organs. To modify these by evo^ 
lution and natural selection would require the monkey 
to understand the shape and function of lungs, for 
example, which did not exist, and that her offspring 
should be born with rudiments of lungs — for perfect 
lungs to come in a single generation would be creation — 
and if thus gratified they would be born dead, as rudi- 
mentary lungs cannot breathe. 

Let us illustrate this idea by the animal without eyes. 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 385 

We have already referred to the fact that exercise 
enlarges and increases the vigor of any organ of the 
animal system ; but here is one that has no organs or 
eyes to exercise, and how can the animal begin the 
operation ? Suppose, further, that the animal had 
embryonic or rudimentary eyes, with which, of course, 
it could not see; how could it exercise these when seeing 
is the only exercise of which the eyes are capable ? Such 
exercise, being voluntary, could only be induced by 
motive, which could only arise from an appreciation of 
light and color, and this appreciation can only result 
from observation which it never enjoyed. Hence, as 
the original progenitor had no eyes, though it might 
have had rudiments, it could never have acquired them 
by exercise, nor by natural selection, as the one implies 
the other, though it had millions of centuries and as 
many generations for the operation, and that simply 
because it implies natural impossibility. As another 
example take the man we have supposed without arms, 
whose condition must once have been that of the 
original progenitor, and how was it possible for him to 
obtain arms by the exercise of no arms, not even rudi- 
ments of arms ? 

Mr. Darwin prophesies that all will be evolutionists. 

In behalf of such an absurdity Mr. Darwin has the 
hardihood to conclude : " We can understand how it 
came to pass that man and all other vertebrate animals 
have been constructed on the same general models why 
they pass through the same early stages of development, 
and why they contain rudiments in common, con- 
sequently we ought frankly to admit their community 
of descent. To take any other view is to admit that 
our own structure, and that of all animals around us, 
is a mere snare laid to entrap our judgment ; but the 

13 



3S6 COSMOGONY. 

time will come before long when it will be thought 
wonderful that naturalists, who were well acquainted 
with the comparative structure and development of men 
and animals, should have believed that each was the 
work of a separate creation." That is to say the time 
will soon come w^hen all naturalists will renounce belief 
in the Bible, especially that part which declares that 
God created, by an especial act, the original progeni- 
tors of each species, and endowed them with the faculty 
of reproducing their kind. This is to reject equally 
the whole Bible and the Christian religion. In fact, 
there is no worship compatible with Darwinism, as it 
denies the existence of anything superior to man him- 
self ; for worship is only conceivable upon the con- 
cession of a superior being. 

But we have the same right to prophesy that Darwin 
has ; and we venture the prediction that those who will 
know and do know the most about the teachings of the 
Bible will and do know most about the science and phil- 
osophy of nature : who have already found the one to 
be the complement of the other. Indeed, the statements 
contained in the. Bible concerning the phenomena of 
nature have always been and are to-day vastly in advance 
of scientific discovery, and the book of Genesis especial- 
ly contains the only true account of the manner in which 
the world came into existence. We also predict that 
Mr. Darwin's children, if he has any, will degenerate into 
monkeys in that same indefinite period, w^ierein will be 
realized the fulfillment of his prophecy. 

It may with propriety be asked, Why has not the 
genius of evolution developed beautiful mansions for the 
accommodation and comfort of man, beginning with the 
rudimentary caves as their inorganic types? Surely this 
is not so difficult a task as to have evolved the man him- 
self, or the great globe as his dwelling-place, only on a 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 387 

larger scale. It may be replied that this work was pur- 
posely left for man himself, in order to develop his 
physical faculties. Wofiderful sagacity ! inanimate na- 
ture capable of elaborating abstract ideas ! We know of 
no reason why everything of life or motion, voluntary or 
involuntary, animate or inanimate, connected with our 
world, which either directly or indirectly work out re- 
sults, should not be considered machines, among which 
may be mentioned the solar system, the earth, gravity, 
the atmosphere, electricity, heat, light, water, clouds, every 
plant and every animal. The fact which gives them this 
character is that each works out some definite purpose ; 
yet in truth they are only secondary causes, in other 
words effects of a Great First Cause. 

There are certain facts and principles connected with 
the existence of all machines, the most prominent of 
which are as follows : Every machine must have had a 
maker, as no machine could have made itself, much less 
its superior ; everything producing a certain effect was 
constructed by intelligence and design. Whether the 
agents working out these results are secondary causes, or 
effects of effects, or the only cause, merely proves their 
organizations to be more or less complicated : the more 
direct the simpler. The smallest atom endowed with 
polarity and chemical affinity is as much a machine as a 
plant formed of an aggregation of atoms ; only the 
plant performs a more important purpose in the universe. 
These truisms concerning some of the phenomena of 
nature simply indicate those grand divisions known and 
classified as the mental and physical sciences. 

Nature cannot be Arrayed against Herself. 

That any of the natural sciences should antagonize 
another, or should draw its conclusions without reference 



388 COSMOGONY. 

to or by ignoring any other— as geology does by declar- 
ing it has nothing to do with the origin of things, or any 
theory of cosmogony, which involves the foundation of 
all science, viz : mind — its source — shows a super- 
ficiality of investigation, a narrowness of view, and a 
bigotry of spirit, which could otherwise hardly be con- 
ceived. History might as well say she had nothing to do 
with dates or events, astronomy with calculations, chem- 
istry with affinities, or physiology with bones. The 
steam-engine, if asked whence its origin, might as well 
answer, I came, or, I evolved, and the answer would be 
just as satisfactory. If the hypothesis of evolution is 
true, is it obligatory on its advocates to show where the 
independent link in the chain of being lies ? 

Man, it is said, drew upon the monkey for his exist- 
ence, the monkey upon the reptile,' the reptile upon the 
fish, the fish upon the bird, the bird upon the plant, and 
the plant reaches down, not only to the very simplest 
thing that grows, but to the gelatinous, homogeneous, 
or nebulous matter, as it is variously designated. But to 
the inquiry, From what did this lowest thing spring ? 
geologists virtually answer. While we are. absorbingly 
interested in the most minute form and peculiar con- 
struction of every other link, and all about how it came 
to be possessed of the nicest shade of organic difference, 
yet as to how the second link came to be connected with 
the first, we have nothing whatever to do. Indeed, we 
only use the comprehensive phrase, " Primordial form," 
as a screen, supposing it will have the effect of prevent 
ing the embarrassing question being pressed as to how 
it came to exist. Just as the evolutionists had become 
thus securely settled down, and seemed by the use of 
this sophistical answer to be relieved from further 
molestation upon this vexed point, out comes Professor 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 389 

Tyndall with the cry, "Whence came the primordial 
form ? " As the question has elicited no reply, either 
from Darwin, the reputed father of the theory of organic 
evolution, or from Lyell, the father of inorganic evolu- 
tion, we must still hold their school responsible for its 
arrogance in pretending to have no interest in the search 
after the First Link in the chain, which interdepending 
Nature, her adjustable uniformity, and finished workman- 
ship, declare to be the Living God, the creator of all 
things, whose wonderful skill and power are as clearly 
manifested in the formation of the smallest animalcule 
that swims in the drop of bog-water as in the most 
gigantic living creature. Indeed, perhaps the former 
excites our just admiration in a greater degree ; for 
when we examine, by the aid of the microscope, an 
object which is so small and delicate that the unassisted 
eye cannot discern it, and which the point of the finest 
needle would destroy in an instant, and yet find it per- 
fectly beautiful in all its organic parts and functions, 
our wonder is increased until the mind is filled with 
astonishment. 

It is here that the science of mind as an integral 
part of nature comes to our assistance, and if our con- 
ceits are not too groveling to comprehend it, it will 
reveal to ^us half of nature's secrets. Indeed, all the 
beautiful arrangements and adjustments of the world, 
whether of nature or art, reflect the skill of the minds 
whence they have emanated, from God downward. To 
him who ignores this science, nature wall forever remain 
an impenetrable mystery. 

How preposterous the notion that the grosser things 
of the world should rise in rebellion against the mind 
that made them ! Better might geological evolution 
deny the existence of its inventors. As well might every 



390 COSMOGONY. 

link in the interdepending cliain of being protest against 
the existence of the next higher, as the second against 
the first ; or as well might one of those marvelously 
organized animacules — supposing it to be the first link 
— declare that it made itself, or that it evolved, or what 
is worse, that it should manifest its ingratitude by 
declaring that it had no interest in its father — indeed, 
that it never had any father. Such sentiments might be 
pardoned in the insect, but the utterance of such ab- 
surdity by a man would make him a fit companion of those 
from whom he confesses his ancestors sprung — the mon- 
key. It is claimed by the advocates of evolution that the 
finding anywhere on the surface of the earth of apiece 
of flint suitable to be fixed into a split stick, as the 
handle of an ax, is as certain evidence of the prior 
existence of man in such locality as though his foot- 
prints had been discovered in the sand. This claim is 
founded on the fact that the construction of the ax 
exhibits intelligence, and not evolution ; but why not 
attribute its peculiar shape to the genius of evolution, 
rather than to the skill of art ? It surely would be 
more reasonable to conclude that the ax itself, with 
its piece of sharp flint projecting from one side, near 
the end, evolved from one a little more crude and a 
shade less resembling a work of art, than that man 
himself evolved from a thing which did not possess 
even his embryo. 

Let us suppose that a hundred of these axes were 
found in the same locality, and that the structure of each 
varied in such nice shades and degrees that any two of 
them nearest each other could not be distinguished, and 
yet that the two most unlike bore no more resemblance 
to each other than a man does to a lobster ; why, then, 
might not the simplest ax be considered a mere work of 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE, 39 1 

nature, the handle itself having gradually turned to 
stone ? Now the whole ax is stone, but still retains 
something of the form of the most perfect implement. 

In order to account for the extreme difference which 
these axes exhibit, one of two conclusions is inevitable 
— either, that a man made each of them, one after the 
other, or that he made the first and rudest, and endowed 
it with the faculty of producing and reproducing from 
itself the other ninety-nine. If the latter, was not the 
making of every ax as much the direct act of the work- 
man, who involved all in the first, as though he had made 
each separately, the succeeding ones being evolved by 
the necessities of its own mechanical structure ? And 
does not its organization display infinitely more ingenu- 
ity in its adaptation to its purposes than though the artif- 
icer had made each ax separately, without this power 
of propagation. 

Man one of God's Machines. 

Upon this principle, the first man was one of God's 
machines, whom He made from the dust of the earth, 
and in that act involved in his structure all the beings 
susceptible of evolving from him. Now, was not each 
of these as much an act of direct creation as the first man 
himself, — in fact, an organic part of the first ? And how 
much greater skill and wisdom were thus displayed than 
though each man had been made separate. In fact, the 
skill manifested is in proportion to the endowment of 
each with the power to produce offspring ; if the prog- 
eny are the exact fac-simile of their parents, the me- 
chanical structure is proportionally simpler than though 
it evolved superior offspring. Thus we reach the con- 
clusion that the most perfect organisms existed first ; 
even if all evolved from a single one primordial form, 



392 COSMOGONY. 

that form was the most perfect of all, and each succeed- 
ing generation has been growing simpler and simpler, 
and man, the last, is the simplest of all. The hypothesis 
of Darwin is thus demonstrated to be erroneous. 

As the same facts and principles are applicable to in- 
animate objects, why have there not, in the ample time 
which has elapsed since man appeared upon earth, been 
evolved beautiful dwellings for his comfort, and every- 
thing else essential to his highest development and civil- 
ization ? It is no answer to say that houses not being 
organized according to the laws of vegetable or animal 
life, do not produce offspring, and therefore cannot 
modify them : for this was the condition of all nature 
before the primordial form was evolved. If, therefore, 
inanimate and inorganic matter was considerate enough 
to evolve such a being as man, incorporating in him cer- 
tain needs and desires, why should it not have evolved 
the simpler things to meet those needs, especially dwell- 
ings for his shelter and comfort ? 

Here, however, common sense, reason, science, and 
philosophy are rudely set at naught by the assumption 
of the arrogant position, that though the finding of the 
ax or flint hatchet demonstrates the prior existence of 
man, and that he was the artificer of the hatchet, yet the 
existence of man himself, the grandest embodiment of 
artistic skill of all, is no evidence of the prior existence 
of an intelligent Being as his architect and maker, who 
must have been as much superior in skill to plan and 
in power to execute, as manifested in the man he made, 
as the man was superior to the ax or dwelling, the work 
of his art. The philosophic necessities in these cases 
demonstrate that the Being who made the man was as 
abstract from the man made, as the man was separate 
from the hatchet and dwelling he made. 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 393 

This assumption of the evolutionists reverses another 
fundamental principle of both nature and art — namely, 
that the order of mind is revealed by what it produces. 
If a work bears the stamp of the simplest character, the 
mind that made it was of the simplest endowment. As 
the house of a beaver manifests the degree of intelli- 
gence of the beaver, so also the architectural skill in- 
volved in the construction of a work of art reveals the 
greatness of the intellect that conceived and the skill 
that executed the work, and as a consequence demon- 
strates the prior existence of the beaver and man. So 
also with the universe : the construction and interdepen- 
dence of all the members of the solar system, presenting 
a vast and complicated mechanism, equally reveal the 
independent, prior existence of its Creator, possessing 
powers of conception and execution equal to those dis- 
played in its works. But the silly hypothesis of evolu- 
tion makes the house of the beaver bring the beaver 
himself into existence — the mansion evolve its maker — 
and, to carry the argument to its legitimate conclusion, it 
makes the unknowing world produce the knowing Being 
who made it. 

TyndalVs admiration for his Ancestral Matter. 

It is admitted that there is a vast break in the. chain 
between men and monkeys ; but the break, it is said, is 
only apparent, as the connecting links have not yet been 
discovered, which only implies further investigation. 
Prof. Tyndall, however, throwing off all disguise, plants 
himself squarely and frankly on the assumption, not only 
that one organic (which means living) being evolved 
another, from the lowest up to man (as the limit of Dar- 
winism), but that inanimate, inorganic matter, simpler in 
form than any which now exists, had the faculty of 



394 COSMOGONY. 

uniting and forming living beings. Says he : "I discern 
in that matter which we in our ignorance have hitherto 
covered with opprobrium, the promise, potency, form 
and quahty of life." It is easy to see that the Profess- 
or's reverence has undergone a complete metamorphosis 
— from God to the discernment in dead matter of a god 
susceptible of being thus disgraced. This, however, is 
only another illustration of the universal tendency of 
mankind to worship something. In the case of this 
scientist we see reverence paid to poor abused matter, 
the god of energy, potency and wisdom that made him. 
This puts us in mind of a people who once made a gold- 
en calf and sung to it, " These be thy gods, who brought 
us up out of the land of Egypt." 

With such an object of groveling admiration before 
the mind, how is the life of himself and of the rest of 
mankind to be lifted to a higher level, which Tyndall 
declares is to be accomplished by the new science of 
evolution ? He is also seconded by Prof. Huxley. We 
have the right, therefore', to interpret the theory of evolu- 
tion as comprehending the production of inanimate as 
well as animate things, without the existence of any 
primordial. If the works of art have evolved from the 
brain and the mechanic powers of man, and man himself 
from an inorganic thing, or simple particles of matter, 
comprehending in the original all the powers and sus- 
ceptibilities of his nature, does it not follow that things 
which have no life are equally the subjects of evolution ? 
First, the living man evolved from dead matter, and 
secondly, from him evolved dead things, called works of 
art, as well as living beings like himself. In this work 
of reproduction is there not displayed contrivance of 
infinitely greater intelligence than thougli the hills, 
mountains, and plains were so constructed that they 



PSYCHOLOGIC TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 395 

would produce, witjiout seed or germ, men, implements 
of manufacture and dwellings of the most perfect kind, 
all in complete maturity, but too simple to reproduce 
others ? 

For instance, would it not require less mechanical skill 
and power to make a locomotive engine, simply capable 
of doing its ordinary work, than to so construct it that 
when once set in motion it would make and turn out 
other locomotives, more beautiful, powerful, and perfect 
than itself, as the theory of evolution requires ? Behold- 
ing the display of such a wonderful machine, what must 
be the mental caliber of the man who should deny that 
the original locomotive was made by a skilled mechanic? 
Does not the merest novice in the study of the mechan- 
ism of nature know that every species of vegetable and 
animal kind, from the lowest to the highest, including 
man, is endowed with this mechanic power of reproduc- 
tion ? and does not the fact demonstrate all this knowl- 
edge and power to have been the exclusive possession of 
the Being who constituted the organizations of the globe, 
just as it demonstrates the fact that the mechanic who 
made the first locomotive made at the same time all its 
capabilities, including every form and degree of power 
and susceptibility ? And is there not infinitely greater 
mechanic skill displayed in the construction of the 
simplest plant of the field than in the most beautiful and 
perfect device ever projected and made by man ? 

The common experience of mankind is that if a 
stupendous work of art or intellectual achievement is 
required, we do not look for help to the minute insect, 
but seek for it in the greatest artistic skill and the high- 
est intelligence, with capacity adequate to the task ; but 
evolutionists reverse all this and recommend us to go to 
the insect, as the best qualified for the work, as the 
greater comes from the less. In the absence of all other 
proof, such transcendent folly seems sufficient to brand 
its ostentatious pretensions as the mere dreams of the 
wildest speculations, alike incongruous, and repugnant 
to the clearest deductions of reason and philosophical 
science. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DETERIORATION, NOT PROGRESS, THE ORDER OF NATURE. 

A MAN is an intellectual, moral, physical, and religious 
being, and as all these departments are interdependent, it 
follows that permanent progress implies an equal develop- 
ment, and therefore an equal cultivation, and that an ex- 
cessive cultivation of any one of these endowments must 
be accomplished at the expense of the rest. If the con- 
stitution of man were so balanced that he would be 
disposed to cultivate equally each of his faculties, and if 
the circumstances of social and civil life were also 
favorable, then the order of nature might be that of 
progress. But when the exigencies of life demand so 
much time for obtaining mere animal sustenance, there 
is little left for other purposes ; therefore, the facts and 
environments render man a victim of deterioration. 

Bearing these facts in mind we remark that, no matter 
how wise any man or generation may be, if each succeed- 
ing one manifests increasing physical weakness, it 
presents a condition of things incompatible with 
increased wisdom or morality. Hence if such are the 
facts at the present time, the human species are march- 
ing toward extinction instead of progressive development, 
and any seeming progress may be real degeneracy. For 
example, if the intellect of a generation is developed at 
the expense of physical vigor, increasing weakness is 
entailed, and a predisposition to disease which renders 
it less able to sustain the same amount of mental 
396 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OF NATURE. 397 

application. Were it a fact that mankind progressed, 
then there would come a generation among whom 
sickness and disease would be unknown — one whose 
intellectual attainments would be so great, and all the 
laws of health and life be so fully understood, that there 
would be no ignorant violations ; and an equal degree 
of moral and religious advancement would forbid the 
commission of crime against body, mind, or Maker. 
No matter how slow the progress such a generation 
must come, and each one manifest its degree of the 
advancement. 

The longevity of such a generation would be counted 
by hundreds instead of tens of years. As inconsistent 
with progress, we may refer to the fact that diseases 
increase in each succeeding generation, and of course 
physicians multiply in the same ratio. This is especially 
true of the last few generations, and they are virulent 
and fatal in proportion to the extent of the derangement; 
from which it follows that new diseases, or more virulent 
phases of old ones, indicate new phases of prior organic 
derangement. If these are in the air, it argues new 
phases of atmospheric disorder, which demonstrates, in 
the absence of all other proof, the final extinction of man. 

Cavendish devoted an immense amount of time to the 
study and analysis of the atmosphere, making no less 
than five hundred experiments. He came to the con- 
clusion that the composition of the air was constant, and 
subject to no variations, going to show that all attempts 
to determine the quality of the air by chemical analysis 
in order to detect impurities were futile. Later experi- 
ments have developed unexpected results, but only to 
the effect that impurities in the air depend upon so small 
quantities or variations of its constituents that they were 
overlooked by earlier investigators, owing perhaps to 



39^ COSAIOGONY. 

the imperfection of their methods and Instruments. 
This variation for a long time was considered of little or 
no significance. These later refined processes, including 
hundreds of analyses — made of air of the same locality 
by day and by night, in all weathers and at all seasons 
of the year, on the earth's surface, and on the tops of 
mountains, at different altitudes by balloon ascensions, 
and upon land and ocean — shows a spirit of investigation 
which has led men to devote years of labor to the solu- 
tion of the problem. The result shows that though the 
variations of the constituents of the air are important, yet 
they are so minute that the difference must be represent- 
ed not even by hundredths, but thousandths, even hun- 
dred thousandths. 

The following is an extract from a recent work by 
Dr. Angus Smith, an English chemist : " Some people 
will probably inquire why we should give so much atten- 
tion to such minute quantities of oxygen as one hundred 
and ninety in a million. In a gallon of water there are 
70,000 grains. Let us put into it an impurity at the rate 
of 190 in a million, and it amounts to i3¥ grains in the 
gallon. This amount would be considered enormous if 
it consisted in putrefying organic matter, or any organic 
matter usually found in water. But we drink compara- 
tively a small quantity of water, and the whole thirteen 
grains would not be swallowed in a day, whereas we take 
into our lungs from 1,000 to 2,000 gallons of air daily." 

Diseased air a?id Me?ital Impression. 

There is perhaps no terror incident to the present life 
of so fearful portent as that which locates disease in the 
air. If poison is in a certain kind of meat we may 
refrain from eating it. If contagion is apprehended 
from too close vicinity of the diseased, we may preserve 
a healthful distance. From miasmatic localities we may 
remove to more salubrious ones ; but if impurity floats 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OP NATURE. 399 

in the air which we must inhale or die, or perhaps die if 
we do inhale, the most appalling fact possible of con- 
templation is presented. In the great plagues of the 
world it has been alleged that the infection was in the 
air. Observers of the course of the Asiatic cholera have 
uniformly agreed that the disease was carried in the air 
from one country to another. Not only has this theory 
prevailed as to the march of epidemics, but the belief in 
the prevalence of bad air in large towns in warm weather 
is so extensive that every summer the cities are thinned 
out, and the rush to the sea-side and mountains has 
become an almost universal mania. 

It must however be confessed that very much of the 
evil effects of what is supposed to be impure air results 
from mere mental impression, otherwise the imagination. 
Groundless fears derange and depress the vital forces 
through the organs which the mi: d controls. Danger 
is thus shifted from the deadly air to the equally, if 
not more, fatal influence of a terrified mind, which 
augments rather than mitigates the evil. This power 
of physical derangement often produces death even 
in the absence of all other causes. There are so many 
facts illustrative of this power (the philosophy and 
physiology of which we have considered elsewhere) of 
deranging every vital function of the human system 
attended by fatal consequences that we might fill vol- 
umes with their records ; but the following examples 
must suffice for the purpose. 

The St. Petersburg Medical Journal published the 
following account of an experiment tried in that city 
when it was first visited by cholera . " Three convicts 
who had been condemned to suffer death were given 
beds to sleep on for one night, upon which persons had 
just died of Asiatic cholera, without the beds being 
cleaned, and without their knowledge of the fact. After 



400 COSMOGONY. 

a sufficient time had elapsed for the disease to have 
manifested itself, if taken, and finding they had not 
been in the least affected, they were then told they were 
to sleep in beds on which persons had just died of 
cholera, when in fact the beds were new and were 
furnished for the experiment. The result, however, was 
that all three took the disease, two of whom died in 
twenty-four hours, and the third barely survived.'" 

We may relate a fact of our own experience, to show 
that even a consciousness that evil effects are being pro- 
duced by the power of mental impression is no protec- 
tion. The last time the cholera visited this country 
(1849) the disease for a few days was very fatal in the 
city of New York. On one of those days we were in the 
city, and were given a room for the night on the fifth 
story of a hotel. Retiring at an early hour, I rested the 
first part of the night as well as usual, "but was aroused 
from sleep by troublous dreams about cholera. The 
question came with overwhelming force. Suppose I 
should be attacked now with the disease? Every 
attempt was made to banish the thought, but in spite of 
all efforts, like Banquo's ghost, it would not down. 
Here are no friends to administer to me, and the disease 
demands immediate attention ; I might even die here 
before morning, and among total strangers. I made 
desperate efforts to reject every suggestion with which I 
was haunted as if with so many malignant specters. 
It was now about midnight. Soon I not only had other 
symptoms of the disease, but was seized with the violent 
cramps accompanying cholera. I rose and dressed, and 
hoping to divert my attention from the dreadful subject, 
took the paper of that day's issue and sat down to read, 
all this time being perfectly conscious that the trouble was 
wholly the result of mental impression. But this knowl- 
edge only increased the agony both of mind and body; 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OF NATURE. 40I 

besides the paper seemed to contain nothing but accounts 
of the ravages of the cholera. Casting it down ahiaost 
in despair, the question returned with redoubled force, 
What must be done ? I had with me no medicine of any- 
kind, and nothing within reach except brandy, in which 
I had long since lost confidence as a remedy even in 
such cases. At about three o'clock in the morning came 
from some good source what proved to be a life-saving 
thought to me : If brandy will not cure your body, it 
will lock up your thoughts if you take enough of it. 
This was just what I wanted. Down into the bar-room 
I went, roused up the barkeeper, and drank nearly a 
tumblerful of brandy. I went back to bed as coura- 
geous as a hero, and in a few minutes had lost all realiza- 
tion of the situation, and did not awake until about eight 
o'clock in the morning, as well as ever, with the excep- 
tion of a headache from the effects of the brandy. 

We may also mention the following experiment, but 
have forgotten the authority : " A criminal condemned 
to die accepted bleeding as the manner of death. He 
was laid upon a dissecting table, his arm bared and 
pricked, and, as he supposed, a vein opened, but he lay 
in such a position that he could not see the arm. At 
the same moment a stream of water which he could 
hear, but not see, was set running from a vessel. The 
result was, the man grew pale and weak, and died in just 
as short a space of time as though the running water 
were his own blood, when in fact not a drop of blood had 
been taken from his veins." 

As a general illustration of this power of physical 
derangement, let us suppose that on the first appearance 
of typhoid fever the whole medical profession had agreed 
in pronouncing it incurable, giving publicity to the 
decision, and describing the symptoms in the most minute 
details, adding that no person feeling any of these 
need look for medical aid, as the physicians themselvse 



402 COSMOGONV. 

would immediately take the disease ; besides, that they 
knew of no method of relief. Suppose, further, that the 
infection was declared to be in the common air, and 
was everywhere diffused. Who does not know that 
such a report, though false in every particular, would 
produce one of the most malignant and extensive plagues 
that ever scourged the human family. It is therefore 
from considerations of prudence that all honest phy- 
sicians discountenance the belief that the germs of 
disease float in the air, and they do so often against their 
own convictions. They do so also in order to counteract 
impressions of fatal diseases in the minds of their 
patients. 

If then it be a fact that the most extreme physical 
derangements are produced by psychological power, set 
in motion by mere mental impression and fixed upon 
the vital organs, may not any of the ordinary diseases 
thus originate ? Another cause of physical deterioration 
is mental excitement (which is but another phase of the 
same philosophy), and each succeeding generation seems 
more susceptible to its influence, whose inevitable result 
is the exhaustion of the nervous forces, which 5re of 
course transmitted, rendering the system less and less 
able to sustain the increased strain. This weakness 
predisposes to disease, as well as renders diseases more 
virulent and difficult to cure when taken. Some of the 
most marked results of the increased nervous excitement 
in our age are as follows: Almost universal neuralgia; a 
vast increase in the number of cases of what is popularly 
known as softening of the brain; a corresponding increase 
in deaths from apoplexy. Continuous strain upon the 
cerebrum, the source ot the voluntary nerves, creates 
feverish excitement and prostration, when suddenly an 
unlooked-for and embarrassing event is sprung upon the 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OF NATURE. 403 

already overtaxed brain. The brain being unable now 
to expel the circulating fluids governed by its electric 
forces, thus deranged and called to the seat of reason 
and to the anterior brain, the seat of vitality, instantly 
the man falls paralyzed in death. 

There is also in the present generation a vastly in- 
creased liability to heart disease. It is well known that the 
circulation of the blood is materially accelerated by men- 
tal excitement. Whether we consider the heart as merely 
the regulator of the circulation or the motive power, its 
mechanism is not susceptible of enduring the shocks of 
a violent and sudden rush of blood through its delicate 
valves, adapted only to ordinary circulation, which there- 
fore interferes with its healthy action and compels irregu- 
lar motion. Hence any mental excitement, causing the 
blood to suddenly rush to the brain and as violently 
through the heart, creates disease, or weakness, which is 
its predisposition, and the course of the disease will be 
rapid in proportion as such shocks are numerous and 
violent, until at last, on the least extraordinary exertion 
of the body or excitement of the mind, the heart gives 
way, and in an instant the man falls dead. The sud- 
denness of death may possibly result from the neutrali- 
zation of the arterial or positive blood and the venous 
or negative blood around the heart. 

To the above causes of human deterioration may be 
added insanity. That this disease may be transmitted 
to offspring is a fact too well known to need proof here. 
Instead, however, of its becoming less frequent and 
violent, which human progress would seem to require, 
the fact that increased brain strain in any age causes an 
equal increase of excitement demonstrates that the cases 
of insanity must also increase, and in the same ratio ; 
each new case where ancestors were not thus affected 



404 COSMOGONY. 

forms a new center from which to send out its seed of 
deterioration and death. Consumption is another fear- 
fully devastating scourge of the human species, and no 
one will question the fact that it is transmitted from 
family to family, from generation to generation, in con- 
tinually widening streams of desolation ; every new case 
in a family, like that of insanity, furnishes a new radius 
of death. It is within the memory of the oldest of our 
generation that the first cases of what is called quick 
consumption were known ; prior to this the duration of 
the disease was nominally seven years. 

Scrofula is another disease more extensively developed 
at the present than at any former period. Its virus is 
unquestionably inherited. Of course it is not fatal in so 
short a time as consumption ; but it spreads over the 
whole system, affecting every vital organ, but locating 
generally on the weakest, simply because it is the weak^ 
est. Hence, it is like a cold, susceptible of inducing 
almost every disease ; and for the same reasons that 
other hereditary diseases become more numerous and 
virulent, so must this. We are thus presented with a 
fearful picture of " The court of death " — and who will 
say it is in the least overdrawn ? — which furnishes an 
unanswerable argument in proof of the deterioration 
instead of the progressive development of mankind. 

What is meant by the inheritance or transmission of 
disease is not that because the parent has consumption, 
for instance, his children will be born with that disease, 
or because the brain of the parent is affected that his 
children will be born insane ; but that the lungs or brain 
in the offspring will be comparatively weaker, giving a 
greater predisposition to disease. It follows also that 
the diseased branches of descent increase in the ratio 
that the children are more numerous than the parents. 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OF NATURE. 405 

Hence, those afflicted with organic diseases — and all 
diseases are organic — must transmit to their offspring 
corresponding weakness and liability to disease, no mat- 
ter what their name or nature, rendering each successive 
generation less able to resist similar attacks. 

The saying is no more proverbial than true, that 
" Every generation grows weaker and wiser." This, then, 
is our subject, with the limitation as to the increased 
wisdom in our day, which we will presently consider. 
Successful mental effort implies a vigorous brain, and a 
vigorous brain means a sound nervous system. From 
which it follows that a diseased nervous system hinders 
the increase of knowledge ; and if this is true of indi- 
viduals, it must be also true of generations which are made 
up of individuals. And a generation has for its weak- 
ness no escape, no remedy. The conclusion therefore 
is that there will come a generation the true description 
of which will require the proverb to be amended, thus : 
*' Every generation grows physically weaker and there- 
fore mentally weaker." Indeed, it seems to us that we 
have already reached the generation in which general 
and substantial knowledge is on the rapid decrease. 
Question our business men in regard to solid reading, 
sound thought, or substantial mental acquirements, and 
the large proportion will frankly admit that they have 
no time for them ; that their business makes such de- 
mands upon their attention that they can only read the 
newspapers or some light literature. What is true of 
them is true in a greater degree of the wives and daugh- 
ters, especially in regard to light literature. In corrob- 
oration of this statement we have only to refer to the 
demand for and spread of this style of reading at the 
present day. 

In view of such a state of facts we ask if we have not 



4o6 COSMOGONY. 

already reached the generation to which the amended 
proverb will forcibly apply ? It is within our remem- 
brance that the subjects of lyceum lectures were of a 
scientific, philosophic, or historical character. Now they 
generally consist of the biography of popular novelists, 
discussion of courtships, theatrical readings, "peculiar 
people," etc. — something to please the fancy for the mo- 
ment ; but nothing to tax the mind, leaving it to starve 
for the want of food, or overtax it with excitement. 

Among other causes which tend to degenerate the 
civilized nations of the world, especially our own, we 
may mention the fact that there are vast numbers of 
people who do not marry young, if at all. On the part 
of the males this in a great measure is owing to the ex- 
pense of a family being beyond their means. Of course 
the same reason prevails largely with a corresponding 
class of females : they demand husbands who can sup- 
port them according to the expensive style of the day, 
and are not willing, like their mothers, and much more 
their grandmothers, to make the necessary sacrifices and 
perform the requisite labor, in common with their hus- 
bands, to obtain a start in the world. 

On the other hand the laboring classes, often with 
small and uncertain wages, marry and take the chances, 
and many of them far outstrip the others in the acquisi- 
tion of a competency, and even wealth. But among 
this class are principally the ignorant and vicious, with 
large families, the children naturally imitating the vices 
instead of the virtues of their parents, thus reversing 
the doctrine of development by natural selection. 

Another matter connected with this subject, and one 
for serious consideration — one we mention with reluc- 
tance — is implied in the question of how to avoid the 
expense of bringing up children. We allude to the 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OF NATURE. 407 

practice of embryonic infanticide, whereby the offspring 
of those who should live to improve the generation in 
morals, intellect, and religion, is reduced to the very 
smallest number consistent with living according to the 
esteemed respectable standard. Another fact closely 
connected with this matter is that this class of mothers 
are physically feeble, and therefore predisposed to dis- 
ease, principally through the want of bodily exercise or 
muscular labor which is essential to physical develop- 
ment. The servant-girls have sound bodies as the 
result and reward of housework, the natural vocation of 
woman. According to the law of transmission, the 
children of modern ladies are endowed with large brains, 
giving the impulse to intense mental and moral activities, 
but with enervated physical systems, too weak to sustain 
their indulgences, or to prolong life to man's allotted 
period of "three-score years and ten." 

This retrogressive tendency might be remedied in the 
course of several generations by the well-directed ener- 
gies of the children of those who had been servants, 
were it not that they are generally born in poverty, 
where deprivations and surrounding bad examples render 
them vicious and therefore weaker and sicklier than the 
other class ; and being compelled to labor at an early 
age, they do not improve mentally. There is one other 
class to which we must refer in order to complete the 
picture — namely, the sons of the rich. A large number 
of these come to mature age without a feeling of respon- 
sibility, when generally it is too late to- learn the lesson. 
They are spendthrifts and often dissipated, in conse- 
quence of which, they die early. Others are interested 
in nothing but making money. They can talk fluently 
about money, if about nothing else. Indeed, to be a 
successful money-maker, especially in this age, whose 



4o8 COSMOGONY. 

Standard of riches is among the millions, constant study 
and unflagging devotion are demanded, no time being 
left for the physical labor necessary to counteract the 
enormous strain upon the mind. Consequently from 
this class come the victims of heart disease, paralysis, 
and apoplexy, and when important financial reverses 
occur, the suicides. We do not point to these evils 
which deteriorate mankind as peculiar to our age ; but 
as they are now increasingly prevalent and aggravating, 
it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that they pal- 
pably reverse the theory of the evolutionists and of all 
others who expect the coming of a better generation of 
mankind upon earth. 

There are various other causes which obstruct the 
progress of mankind ; which have destroyed the civili- 
zations of the past, and are reaching fearful proportions 
in most of the civilized countries at the present day. 
The most prominent among these, and the one w4iich 
we propose briefly to consider, is that which relates to 
the demand and supply of food ; upon which we intro- 
duce the following extract from the writings of E. D 
Mansfield, the great economist : " Malthus long since 
stated that population was limited by food, and hence 
that marriages must diminish where food is scarce. This 
proposition startled many persons, who seemed to think 
it was in some degree in opposition to the law of God, 
that people should be ipultiplied and society built up. 

" They forgot that each law of God is consistent with 
every other law, and that while the earth may have 
capacity to feed innumerable millions, it may not have 
capacity when there is a concentration of population in 
small districts, while a very large part of the earth 
remains uncultivated. In a word, can half of mankind 
be non-producers in cities and towns without elementary 
decay ? To build up vast cities and fill them with monu- 
ments of art and luxury which we call civilization ; and 
justly, because the word is derived from civis^ city. 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OF NATURE. 409 

"The question is whether civilization is not self- 
destructive ? Is it not in fact one of the real causes of 
the destruction of nations ; and as long as civilized 
nations hold ideas they now hold on the nature of civili- 
zation, must not the life of nations be limited, and our 
most civilized nations decay and perish, as did the great 
nations of antiquity ? [If the most civilized of gener- 
ations perish, as the history of the world shows they have 
done, must they not have degenerated first, or sickened 
before death ? If such is the fate of the most en- 
lightened, what must be the fate of the lower classes ?] 
This is a question of the greatest importance to society, 
religion, and philosophy. It is not one which concerns 
Europe, China, or India, and at some future period, but 
it is a question which at this very moment is pressing 
upon us in the United States, young as we are. 

" Apparently the economists of this country have not 
begun to think that if the non-producers continue to 
gain on the producers as rapidly as at present, notwith- 
standing all the aid of agricultural machinery, (and it is 
already immense, and which has itself resulted from the 
great demand for food, on the principle that necessity 
is the mother of invention) there will come a time, by 
mathematical ratios, when population must press against 
the limits of food, and by necessity population must 
diminish. 

" You say, ' No matter : that will be beyond our time 
— ages hence.' Perhaps so. But you may be startled to 
find that in some places it is upon you now. There are 
evident signs of an approaching crisis of some sort, 
though we cannot tell exactly what shape it will take. 
. . . Look at the condition and at some facts of 
the United States and other countries. The city of 
London is now importing its food from Russia and 
America, hundreds and thousands of miles off. Is there 
not danger of one of those ' providential accidents,' as 
we may call them, occurring, when the supplies of Lon- 
don will be cut off for a time ? and may it not occur at 
any time ? Look at Ireland, which in three years lost 
two millions of people ! that was not very long ago. You 
may say that Ireland depended upon potatoes alone. So 



410 COSMOGONY. 

London is depending upon Russia and America for food. 
There are evident signs of a pressure for food in the 
great cities ; and although the multitudes may be asleep 
on the subject, yet it will be well for thoughtful minds 
to consider it. When we find beefsteak 15 cents a pound 
in Cincinnati, 25 cents in New York, and 30 cents in 
London, where it was not half that forty years ago, it calls 
for investigation, if not for wonder. 

An approaching Crisis. 

" In New York and Cincinnati there is a rise of 100 
per cent, in the price of meats in one generation (thirty 
years). It is evident enough that the next generation 
cannot stand a similar rise. But this is only one and a 
small sign of the greaf food trouble. We find, notwith- 
standing the working-men have far higher wages both in 
Europe and America than ever they had before, yet they 
complain, and combine for higher wages, and the whole 
body are in fermentation, and we cannot but see that 
there is something wrong in the relation of food and 
labor. If food has been relatively scarce, then just such 
effects as we see here will be produced — higher prices of 
food and discontented workmen — which is simply cause 
and effect. The business of philosophers is to discern 
the reason why the phenomena exist. To me the cause 
seems very evident ; but I do not so clearly see the 
remedy." 

The writer then gives a table showing that the popula- 
tion of the three central States, New York, Pennsylvania, 
and Ohio, increased in the cities and towns sevenfold in 
comparison with the increase in the rural or producing 
districts in the same time, and continues : " Now it is 
impossible to continue this relative increase of civic over 
rural population without ultimate starvation. Hence, 
we can come to but one conclusion, that the city and 
town population of this country must cease to increase 
or we shall increase the price of provisions to an insup- 
portable rate, and finally to failure. In a word, the 
present condition of things we call civilization cannot 
continue much longer," 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OF NATURE. 41I 

It is not to be wondered at that this writer, viewing 
the present, should infer the future portentous evils 
which he has described, and should not so clearly see 
the remedy. The only remedy he suggests is in the 
dispersion of population to the unoccupied regions, and 
their becoming producers of food. The practicability of 
such a scheme, however, grows more hopeless every day, 
indicating the continuance of the present state of things 
until the struggle between the starving poor and the rich 
is reached. This struggle is as sure to come as that like 
causes produce like effects. If, then, we must have the 
contest, and the revolution be as extended as the evil, it 
will embrace the whole civilized world. The question 
then arises, Which party will triumph ? History answers, 
The starving poor. When bread panics occur, the 
people, urged on by the desperation of hunger and long 
oppression, set all law at defiance, and help themselves. 

It is true we have had few bread riots in this country, 
and these on a small scale, which have been speedily 
suppressed by overwhelming numbers ; but the riots here 
contemplated comprehend the cities of the civilized 
world, connected as they are by telegraphic communi- 
cation, and imply an equally extensive organization. 
The poor will be arrayed against the rich, not because 
of enmity, but because they hope thereby in some way 
to obtain the necessities of life for themselves and 
their children. The vast majority being the poor, is 
it not certain that they will succeed in the work of 
ruin and survive, for this is all it could eventuate in, 
while the cultivated, refined, and progressive will be 
obliged to succumb ? Such was the result during the 
French Revolution, in the days of Louis XVI., when 
Paris was in the hands of the riotous mob, and the 
streets ran with the blood of the rich, the intellectual 



412 COSMOGONY. 

and the moral. Such contests must be as widespread 
and ruinous as the parties are numerous and extreme 
in social position. 

Just as sure, therefore, as human nature remains the 
same, must history repeat itself. There is but one remedy 
for these threatening evils and dangers, and that is the 
voluntary abandonment of combinations and monopolies 
of wealth and power. By social upheavals the progress 
of ages may be destroyed in a month. According to 
this philosopher there is no remedy for the state he so 
gloomily depicts. For how can the poor of the large 
eastern cities occupy the distant uncultivated lands, be 
they never so fertile and cheap ? to say nothing of the 
purchase of farms and of the means of subsistence until 
they should get a start They have not even money 
enough to pay for the transportation of themselves and 
families to the nearest of the unoccupied western lands. 
Hence the impracticability of the remedy suggested by 
this political economist for the evil of overcrowded cities. 
Therefore — the struggle must come ; and it is easy to 
foresee the result — the survival of the unfittest — thus 
completely reversing the doctrine of progress. 

With such a picture to contemplate — and we have no 
fears that any observing man will say it is overdrawn — 
we would ask if it does not lend tenfold force to the 
scientific and philosophic demonstrations already ad- 
vanced against Darwin's theory of progressive develop- 
ment ? Indeed, does it not point, as surely as the needle 
to the pole, to the final extinction of mankind as inhabi- 
tants of the earth in its present form ? 

Evolution Atheistic Science. 

Evolution is emphatically atheistic science. Before its 
discovery, science, especially that of astronomy, was 



DETERIORATION THE ORDER OF NATURE. 413 

acknowledged to be in the defense of theism ; and 
progress from the less to the more perfect, although not 
then a well-defined question of discussion, was virtually- 
denied by atheists, as being inconsistent with the idea 
that things had no beginning, because development from 
lower orders implied a commencement which was fatal 
to atheism ; and its adoption necessitated the complete 
abandonment of the endless existence theory of things, 
and the admission that nature had a beginning. It is 
clear, therefore, that the investigation has forced atheism 
from its position of no beginning to a beginning of the 
universe, and we have demonstrated that the beginning 
was by creation. It is true that the mongrelism of 
atheistip evolution employs the phrase progressive 
development, but not endless development ; for the ideas 
of endless progress, as applicable to the present world, 
are incompatible with each other. 

Pure atheism requires that there never was any prog- 
ress, retrogression, modification, or succession of things 
in the universe — no coming in and no going out of ex- 
istence — no being born and no dying — no beginning and 
no ending. That everything moved in circles, and not 
in geographical or chronological lines. In a word, that 
everything in the universe was characterized by fixed 
unchangeability ; but as all this is refuted by the facts 
and order of the universe, it demonstrates the atheistic 
sentiment of their endless theory of things in the past 
false ; and as we have proved that the progressive de- 
velopment theory of evolution is contrary to all science, 
all philosophy, and all history, written in the rocks and 
elements of nature, atheists cannot use it for the con- 
firmation of their cherished obliteration of God from 
His universe. Hence, the only alternative it leaves — and 
that, too, as a scientific and philosophic necessity — is the 
great truism of nature as well as Scripture : — 
*'Sn tl)e beginning ^ab rreateb X\\z 
j^eatjen anb \\\z (Eartl).'' 



CHAPTER XV. 

NATIONAL DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 

Darwin's Assumptions Refuted. 

If Darwin's assumption is true, that progress is the 
invariable rule among mankind, it would be vindicated 
by the history of nations as well as that of generations, 
and especially of those nations that have successively 
held the empire of the world. Were the assumption 
true, we repeat, we should have as a reason for the over- 
throw of one nation by another the fact that that 
power which triumphed was better fitted to elevate and 
improve the condition of the people ; and whenever 
such a change took place the new rulers would be very 
careful not to destroy the works of art, learning or re- 
finement ; and that the agencies and records of human 
advancement — the laws, standards of virtue, and monu- 
ments of noble characters and deeds — would be pre- 
served and adopted. But as the exact reverse of this is 
the history of the past, therefore Darwin, Tyndall, 
Lyell and Huxley stand rebuked by the universal voice 
of mankind. 

If the moral sentiments of human nature were equally 
balanced between virtue and vice, right and wrong, then 
bad books, bad examples, and their teaching would be 
no more pernicious than those of an opposite character 
would be influential for good. In such case moral evo- 
lution would have an equal chance of success ; but 
414 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 415 

when it is as obvious as man's existence that he gravi- 
tates toward vice and wrong, does it not follow that 
natural selection, if unchecked, would develop a genera- 
tion so morally corrupt, so mentally and physically en- 
ervated, that it would be unable to reproduce itself, and 
therefore the human species would become extinct ? 
What was it that destroyed the great nations of the 
East ? We answer. War, with its usual accompaniments, 
pestilence and famine. While it is admifted that some 
nations have derived temporary and even permanent ad- 
vantages by aggressive warfare, yet these are exceptions, 
and it is questionable whether even they have advanced 
the standard of civilization in the world at large. In 
the life and march of nations, each has in turn become 
affluent, corrupt, supine, and impoverished, thereby fall- 
ing an easy prey to a smaller yet stronger one, though 
the latter may not have had a single superior element 
other than that of mere physical force. The victor in 
turn travels the same road from affluence to poverty, 
from power to weakness, the survivors in no case show- 
ing any mark of mental, moral, and physical progress — 
for progress implies an equal advance of all de- 
partments and phases of human nature. Improvement 
of one of these at the expense of the other is real de- 
generacy. Excessive cultivation of the intellect at the 
expense of the moral nature only qualifies a villain to 
be more villainous. The transmission of pernicious 
sentiments and bad examples, if equally imitated, lowers 
the moral standard in the same degree as good ones ele- 
vate it. It is sadly true that though God made man up- 
right, he has " sought out many inventions," and for the 
prosecution of infamous purposes. Every perpetration 
of a new or greater crime only makes its repetition 
easier, and in. an advanced state of civilization its pub- 



4l6 COSMOGONY. 

lication in a book or newspaper, or its exhibition in a 
theater, is itself a crime. So also every new instance of 
noble virtue renders its imitation easier ; hence, as the 
standard of individual goodness and greatness is ele- 
vated, vice and crime become more and more atrocious. 
But the history of the world shows that the instances of 
great villainy are far more numerous, and if sent abroad 
with those of eminent virtue and sacred truth, then might 
they have something of an equal chance of success ; but 
while the latter perish in obscurity and are forgotten, or 
at best are brought into notice by accident, the former 
are emblazoned in song and story and travel on the wings 
of every wind. The masses purchase largely and eagerly 
devour fiction and error, and even professed Christian 
publishers often give them to the public in preference 
to sound and healthy reading because of their love of 
money. The young and misguided usually sympathize 
with the moderately wicked, while only here and there is 
found one who seeks after truth and the most exalted 
virtue, without regard to the selfish question whether it 
will pay in the present world, looking only to the hope 
of reward which Christianity holds out as inducement 
to sacrifice the present life for one of eternal dura- 
tion. 

Evolution, on the contrary, sees nothing in mankind 
but a common brotherhood with the beasts that perish — 
alike in life, death, and eternity, — and in the nature of 
things presents no example for imitation higher than 
man himself, and that too in his lower fellow animal 
nature. We need not wait for such degrading senti- 
ments to develop their legitimate fruit in order to de- 
termine its character. It may be seen in the lowest sav- 
age that roams the earth, whose ancestors refused to re- 
tain God in their thoughts until they had lost all con- 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 417 

ception of His existence — moral accountability, or of 
the possibility of their own future existence. 

Blot out man's hope of endless association with his 
Maker in a coming world, a fitness for which its gospel 
alone gives, and he rapidly degenerates to the condition of 
the savage. This is the legitimate tendency of Darwin's 
teaching and that of his school ; for if God did not 
make man, He is not his proprietor, and is under no re- 
sponsibility to Him. Man may therefore fly to the in- 
dulgence of every vile passion and the perpetration of 
every degrading act, and all will be the same in the end. 
Thus is sown the seed of a prolific harvest of vice and 
immorality more dangerous and deteriorating to man- 
kind than that scattered by all the infidels, deists and 
atheists since the world began ; and oh, what a harvest 
will be gathered if the false reasonings and subtile 
sophistries of the so-called modern scientists are not ef- 
fectually exposed ! 

For our part, we cannot see how it is possible for a 
man to avoid becoming more or less skeptical if he 
reads the latest works of Darwin, Lyell, Tyndall, or Hux- 
ley, unless he is so well grounded in natural science and 
philosophy as to be able to reach deeper and see further 
into their fundamental principles than they have done. 
So, whether we consider the doctrine of evolution ac- 
cording to natural selection in the light of mental, moral, 
or physical science, or as applicable to individuals or 
communities, its tendency is equally to degenerate man- 
kind. Sir Charles Lyell quotes many ancient and mod- 
ern writers touching the nature and appearance of the 
geological formations, all of whom in the earlier stages 
of the study of the rock verified the Mosaic account of 
creation and the deluge by the facts they discovered. 
Coming down to later times, a few began to diverge from 



4lS COSMOGONY. 

that hypothesis, until finally the theory of Lyell and 
Darwin was developed ; and of course, as it declares, it 
is the fittest to survive. But what is it that has thus far 
survived ? We answer, A pestilent and rank growth of 
skepticism. Whether these teachings are good or bad, 
whether they are to advance or retard the elevation of 
man, depends upon whether they inculcate the Christian 
idea of God and the Bible. Every one who is at all ac- 
quainted with the history of civilization knows that in 
its march the highest development has kept exact step 
with Christianity. Hence it is no more true that " West- 
ward the march of empire makes its way," than that 
westward the march of Christianity makes its way ; for 
the latter has always preceded the civil elevation of 
mankind. 

It is equally true that in those countries where Chris- 
tianity was first planted, and flourished side by side with 
Grecian and Roman civilization, when Mohammedanism 
and paganism stifled and extinguished its light, civiliza- 
tion went out with it. Indeed civilization, in its most 
exalted sense, as well as what we call humanity, are but 
the reflex of Christianity, and can no more shine or be 
seen without it than can the moon without the sun. 

In Lyell's and Darwin's rejection of the Mosaic account 
of creation, both as to the manner and time of the work, 
thus denying its inspired authority, we find them quot- 
ing from the Indians and the records of other ancient 
peoples in corroboration, if not vindication, of their 
views, showing that in their opinion its authority is of 
less importance. With regard to Egyptian cosmogony 
Lyell says : " We gather much information from writers 
of Grecian sects, who borrowed almost all their tenets 
from Egypt, and among others that of the former suc- 
cessions, destruction, and renovation of the world. We 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 419 

learn from Plutarch that this was the theme of one of 
the hymns of Orpheus, so celebrated in the fabulous ages 
of Greece. It was brought by him from the banks of 
the Nile ; and we find in his verses, as in the Indian 
systems, a definite period assigned for the destruction of 
each successive world. The returns of great catastrophes 
were determined by the period of the Annus Magnus, or 
great year — a cycle composed of the revolutions of the 
sun, moon, and planets, and terminating when these re- 
turn together to the same sign whence they were sup- 
posed at some remote epoch to have set out. The dura- 
tion of this great cycle was variously estimated. Ac- 
cording to Orpheus, it was 120,000 years ; according to 
others, 300,000 ; and Cassander makes it 360,000. 
[These estimates bear the true stamp of geological calcu- 
lation of definite periods — immense length and great dis- 
crepancy — and all founded upon an event which was sup- 
posed to have occurred at some remote period. Again 
he says :] We learn particularly from the Timaeus of 
Plato that the Egyptians believed the world to be sub- 
ject to occasional conflagrations and deluges whereby 
the gods corrected the career of human wickedness and 
purified the earth from guilt." 

If these accounts are true, then the human species 
never progressed, but always degenerated, and that to 
such a degree that the gods were obliged to destroy the 
whole generation and commence with a new one. Of 
course the most perfect was always first, which reverses 
the principle of evolution. 

Heathen Philosophy Corruptions of Scripture. 

Here we have certain information brought by Orpheus 
and Plato, both Grecian writers, from Egypt. This 
relates to the destruction of the world by a flood, in 
order to correct the wickedness of men ; and also its 
destruction by conflagrations in order to purify it. The 
question arises. If these Greeks obtained this informa- 
tion from the Egyptians, from whence did the Egyptians 



420 COSMOGONY. 

obtain it ? We answer, From the Hebrews, who resided 
in Egypt four hundred years, and made their exodus 
from it more than two thousand years before Orpheus 
or Plato was born — before even Greece existed. These 
Hebrews knew that their God once destroyed the world 
by a flood, and all but eight of its human inhabitants 
perished ; and that it was done because of their great 
wickedness. 

The history of this destruction is recorded in the 
6th and 7th chapters of Genesis, and the determi- 
nation is thus expressed : " And God saw that the 
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every 
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
continually. And it repented the Lord that he had 
made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 
And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have 
created, from the face of the earth ; both man, and 
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air ; 
for it repented the Lord that he had made them." 

(6 : S-7). 

The Hebrews also knew that their God had rained 
fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Go- 
morrah, and the cities about them, destroying both them 
and their inhabitants for their wickedness by a mighty 
conflagration. This catastrophe happened in the days 
of Abraham, the grandfather of Jacob, who went into 
Egypt at the commencement of this four hundred years, 
and from whose family the Hebrew nation sprung. The 
account of this conflagration is recorded in the 19th 
chapter of Genesis. At the 24th and 25th verses we 
read : " Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon 
Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of 
heaven ; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, 
and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 42 1 

grew upon the ground, and behold, and lo, the smoke of 
the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." 

The Hebrews had also the prophecy of Enoch, the 
seventh person from Adam born into the world, by 
which at this early period God made known his determi- 
nation to purify the world from the curse and power of the 
wicked. It was revealed to the apostle Jude, who wrote 
it, thus : " Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophe- 
sied of these, saying. Behold, the Lord cometh with ten 
thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, 
and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all 
their ungodly deeds which they have committed, and of 
all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have 
spoken against him." (Jude 14). This coming of the 
Judge and judgment is associated in the Bible with the 
conflagration of the world yet to come. 

Now, what was more natural than that the Hebrews 
should have taught the Egyptians about the flood and 
these conflagrations, and the object for which God had 
thus punished and intended to punish mankind, and that 
subsequent to this last world-wide conflagration he was 
to make of its ashes a new world in which righteous- 
ness will forever dwell ? Hence it is evident that the 
traditions of these Greeks concerning floods and con- 
flagrations inflicted for the wickedness of men came 
from the Scriptures of truth ; and thus does Lyell inad- 
vertently confirm the historic statements of Moses by 
heathen mythologists. Lyell calls it a wonderful con- 
ception of heathen mythology, and of very great im- 
portance in fixing the data for his speculations, especially 
that relating to the creation. He says : 

" One remarkable fiction of Egyptian mythology was 
the supposed intimation of a masculo-feminine prin- 
ciple, to which was assigned the development of the em- 



422 COSMOGONY. 

bryo world from chaos, somewhat in the way of incu- 
bation. When the first chaotic mass had been produced 
by a self-dependent and eternal being [A self-depend- 
ent being must be an intelligent being, and an intelligent 
being must be a living being ; therefore it was, even ac- 
cording to this heathen mythologist, a living God who 
produced the first thing.] it required the mysterious func- 
tions of this subordinate deity to produce the mundane 
egg from which the world was hatched. Aristophanes, 
alluding to this Egyptian fable, which had been en- 
grafted by Orpheus on the Greek mythology, introduced 
the chorus in his comedy of the birds, singing in solemn 
hymn : 

" * How sable-plumed night conceived 
In the boundless bosom of Erebus, 
And laid an egg from wliich sprung 
Love, resplendent with golden pinions.' 

" Love fecundated the dark-winged chaos, and gave 
origin to the race of birds." 

But why should Lyell consider this hymn of Orpheus 
singing about the subordinate deity hatching the world 
from an embryonic, mundane egg, so wonderful a fic- 
tion, when he adopts Darwin's more marvelous concep- 
tion that the world, the solar system, and all they con- 
tain were hatched into existence without an egg, or with- 
out a hen to sit on it ? Again he says : " It is not in- 
consistent with the Hindoo mythology to suppose that 
Pythagoras, whose opinions will presently be mentioned, 
might have been found in the East. Not only the sys- 
tem of universal and violent catastrophes and periods 
of repose in endless succession, but also that of periodi- 
cal revolutions, effected by the continual agency of 
ordinary causes. [Will Mr. Lyell please inform us how 
such ' violent catastrophes ' could have been produced 
by ' ordinary causes ? '] For Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, 
the first, second, and third persons in the Hindoo triad, 
severally represented the creation, the preserving and 
destroying powers of the deity. The co-existence of 
these three attributes, and in simultaneous operation, 
might well accord with the perpetual but partial altera- 
tions, finally bringing about a complete change." 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 423 

LyeWs Ijicojisistency in ignoring the Bible Record 

How much more consistent would the inference be 
that these views originated in the mind of the great 
Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the world, as re- 
vealed in the Bible hundreds of years before Pythagoras 
or any Hindoo Brahma existed, and which had been 
thus corrupted by the traditions of those whose ancestors 
had sprung from the family of Noah ! The inference 
also is hardly legitimate that the gods were such slaves 
to the things they made that they must continue to 
change and destroy ; for in that case they would have 
destroyed themselves. Neither could the catastrophes 
here mentioned have been brought about by slow de- 
grees and ordinary changes, for such would have been 
no catastrophes at all. 

The fact is, Lyell here endeavors to use these mytho- 
logical fictions for two opposite purposes : First, he gives 
them full credit for the long definite periods which in- 
tervene between the catastrophes, as this suits his pet 
theory of making the world older than the Bible declares 
it to be ; and he very carefully endeavors to show that 
the catastrophes were not catastrophes, for the reason 
that another of his opinions is that there never were any 
catastrophes, as creations or destructions, and never will 
be. Behold this great scientist so hard pressed for evi- 
dence in defense of his theories that he seizes upon the 
periods from the pagan myths to prove the events they 
describe, but tells the poor gods the events themselves 
never occurred ! It is like saying it is three hundred 
years since the Reformation, but there never was any 
reformation. 

He continues : "The fiction expressed in the verses 
from Menu, of eternal vicissitudes in the vigils and slum- 



424 COSMOGONY. 

bers of Brahma, seems accommodated to the systems of 
general catastrophes, followed by new creations and 
periods of repose." Observe how mythological fiction 
is exalted at the expense of Bible truth, betraying the 
secret animus of men of his school to undermine the 
authority of the sacred Scriptures — searching among 
heathen fables for evidence to contradict Moses. But 
even this citation from Hindoo tradition Lyell per- 
verts by attributing to Brahma the authorship of the 
catastrophes, while in Hindoo theology Brahma is only 
one of the three whom God created, by whose co-opera- 
tion the world was formed. 

If uniform progress has marked the civilizations of 
the world, then we should find the rudest peoples among 
the earliest nations, and the highest among those of the 
present day. That such is not the fact will appear by 
referring to the degeneracy and degradation of the once 
elevated standards of the civilization of the beautiful 
countries of Asia and Africa, which were once the seats 
of the learning, wealth, art, virtue, power, and refinement 
of the world. Where are Thebes and Mem.phis, the 
proud cities of Egypt, whose standard of learning was 
so high that when the apostle wished to convey an ade- 
quate idea of the intelligence of the great Hebrew leader, 
he declared that " Moses was learned in all the wisdom 
of the Egyptians." 

Where is Troy, once the mistress of Asia ? Where is 
Babylon, the capital of the great Chaldean monarchy, 
the first to wield universal dominion ? Where the 
Medo-Persian monarchy, which in turn swayed the 
scepter of the world, as in the days of Cyrus and Darius ? 
Where also is Greece, with her Thales, Solon, Lycurgus, 
Demosthenes, and Socrates ? In order to show the con- 
ceptions which the Grecian philosophers entertained of 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 425 

what human societies and states should be, and what they 
endeavored to make them, we introduce the following 
passage from " Rollin's Ancient History," vol. i., p. 290, 
291 : 

" Plutarch describes an entertainment which Priander 
gave to the illustrious seven wise men of Greece. At 
supper, one of the company proposed this question : 
Which is the most perfect popular government ? That, 
answered Solon, where an injury done to any private 
citizen is such to the whole body. That, said Bias, 
where the law has no superior. That, said Thales, where 
the inhabitants are neither too rich nor too poor. That, 
said Anarcharsis, where virtue is honored and vice de- 
tested. That, said Pettacus, where dignities are always 
conferred upon the virtuous, and never on the wicked. 
That, said Cleobulus, where the citizens fear blame 
more than punishment. That, said Chilo, where the 
laws are more regarded and have more authority than 
the orators." 

Though the element of religion is not here directly 
mentioned, only implied by the expressions " vice and 
virtue," "the wicked and the virtuous," which only exist 
as deviations from or obedience to a religious standard, 
and presupposes the existence of the standard as one of 
the essentials of the social state ; yet every one who is 
acquainted with the sentiments of these great men 
knows that religion was inculcated as a fundamental 
principle. For example, it is said that one of the max- 
ims which Bias particularly taught and recommended 
was : " To do all the good we can, and ascribe all the 
glory of it to the gods." It is unnecessary to say that 
these grand sentiments constitute the very highest form 
of civilization, and when entertained by the great minds 
of a nation they must go very far toward molding the 
character of the people, and controlling their lives. 



426 COSMOGONY. 



National Progress Not the Rule, 

Now, if progress is the " invariable rule," why did not 
Greece, whose people were once so highly developed, 
continue to exist as a nation ? Being the fittest to sur- 
vive, why must we now sing of her in the image of Pow- 
ers' " Greek Slave : " 

In chains she stands, and proudly frowned : 

Tell not the fallen Grreek she's bound ; 

'Twill lighten every cursed link — 

Fetterless still her limbs to think. 

Greece, like this sculptured slave, 

Thy heroes, poets, wise and brave — 

The marshaled world's embattled plain 

Swept by the Macedon's swift-winged train. 

Yes ! mighty Greece, where Homer's song 

In lyric numbers flowed along 

O'er Mars' proud hilltops' ancient dome, 

And crimsoned fields of Marathon. 

Her likeness now clad in this chain, 

Sadly bent o'er ruined fame. 

It breathes not yet, there life must be — 

So formed in nature's melody. 

She weeps o'er Grecia's fallen state, 

The helpless tear sheds o'er the great. 

Her heart bled deeply ere she fell, 

So seems the image form to tell. 

Greece yet in chains, though Byron weep. 

The artistic type doth still repeat ; 

Her star of freedom's faded light, 

Moonless, rayless, quenched in night, 

Entombed within the grave of time. 

With national sepulchers there to chime 

The noiseless dirge that wakes no more 

To song or freedom, chains or war. 

That such exalted sentiments were not confined to 
Greece alone, and to her golden age, is shown by the 
fact that the standard of Scythian progress, long before 
Scythia formed a part of the Grecian kingdom, indeed, 
before Greece was a kingdom, wa.s still higher and 
nobler than that of Greece. The Scythians inhabited a 
country in the North of Europe. Rollin says, vol. i. p. 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 427 

314: "Let US acknowledge, to the shame of ancient 
philosophy, that the Scythians, who did not particularly 
apply themselves to the study of wisdom, carried it to a 
greater height in their practice than either the Egyptians, 
Grecians, or any other civilized nation. They did not 
give the name of goods or riches to anything but what, 
humanly speaking, truly deserves that title : as health, 
strength, courage, the love of labor, sincerity, an abhor- 
rence of all fraud and dissimulation. In a word, all 
such qualities as render a man more virtuous and valu- 
able. These were their riches." This historian beauti- 
fully adds : " If to these happy dispositions we could, 
add the knowledge and love of the true God and of our 
Redeemer, without which the most exalted virtues are of 
no value, they would have been a perfect people." 

How far do these sublime pictures of human advance- 
ment excel those of any modern country or nation, 
even in this boasting age of ours, either in England or 
America ! Greece was conquered by Rome in an ag- 
gressive warfare, and history shows that she never 
equaled, much less excelled her, in a single element of 
human greatness — not even in her Augustan or golden 
age. In her decline and fall, Greece became inferior 
only to Rome in stratagem, intrigue, and selfish am- 
bition ; and if a people animated by these debasing 
principles are better fitted to survive, then the theory of 
natural selection may be true. While the conquest 
seemed to elevate the Romans by the new Grecian asso- 
ciation, in the same degree it corrupted the Greeks and 
lowered the national standard of virtue and intelli- 
gence. 

When Rome was mistress of the world, disposing of 
nations and individuals at her pleasure — and she always 
took pleasure in it — it would seem that the only protec- 



428 COSMOGONY. 

tion against indignity was to become a Roman citizen ; 
but the privilege cost so much that few could obtain the 
distinction, and all the rest were slaves. It is true that 
in Athens, the cradle of Grecian greatness, the authori- 
ties suffered conspirators to put Socrates, the father of 
moral philosophy, as he is called, to death, for no crime ; 
but when the plot was discovered the conspirators paid 
the penalty, which was the forfeiture of their own lives ; 
but Rome sent her soldiers to crucify Christ without the 
least crime being proved against him, at the instigation 
of a murderous mob of infatuated Jews, and nothing, 
was ever done to the conspirators. 

These facts demonstrate that the march of nations, 
instead of being progressive in that which ennobles man, 
is steadily toward degeneracy. If it be true, as claimed, 
that mankind constantly advance, then why have all the 
splendid empires of the world perished, to give place to 
such nations as Great Britain and the United States, 
whose moral and civil standards are so low that places 
of power and trust are bought and sold for money ? If 
the claim be true, then the present generation should 
have inherited a virtuous and noble mind from Greece, 
incorruptible morals from Scythia, an elevated patriotism 
from Sparta, and a vigorous body from Rome. In con- 
trast to this we have almost universal covetousness. 
Treachery and deceit are so common that man has no 
faith in man. It is the generation of the "almighty dol- 
lar." Almost universal fraud has taken the place of 
honor. Had Shakespeare intended by the following 
lines to describe this characteristic of the present gener- 
ation, he could scarcely have done so more accurately. 

" What is honor? A word. What is 
That word ? Honor. What is 
Honor ? Air. A trim reckoning. 
Who hath it ? he that died on 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 429 

Wednesday. 

Dotli he feel it ? No. Doth he hear it ? 

No. It is insensible then ? yea, 

To the dead. But will it not live 

With the living ? No. Why? 

Detraction will not suffer it. 

Therefore I'll have none of it. " 

Rome never equaled Greece in Virtue or Intelligence. 

In the year 30 B.C. the Roman republic became a 
monarchy under Octavius. Before this Julius Caesar set 
fire to the city of Alexandria, and destroyed a library 
containing 400,000 volumes. How does such an act 
show Roman civilization to have been superior to that 
of Greece or Africa, and therefore fitter to survive ? In 
the year 83 a.d. the Emperor Domitian banished all the 
philosophers from Rome and suppressed their schools. 
Does this show Rome to have been superior to Greece 
as the leader in the van of human progress ? Let us 
come' down to the period when the Roman Empire was 
itself overrun and divided among the barbarian tribes of 
northern Germany. The city of Rome was sacked and 
burned by the Goths under Alaric, 410. a.d. The con- 
quest of Spain and Gaul by the Vandals and the per- 
manent settlement of those countries by them took place 
41 2j A.D. They also planted themselves firmly in 
Toulouse in 414. In fact, nearly all Europe was over- 
run by the Visigoths at this period. About the same 
time, also, Attilla, the Hun, knov/n as the " Scourge of 
God," ruled an immense empire stretching from China 
to the Atlantic. Genseric also established a Vandal 
kingdom in Africa, took Carthage, and plundered Italy 
in the year 439. 

These barbarous tribes had not an element of civili- 
zation which could be compared with that of Rome in 
the Augustan age, distinguished for that in which Christ 



430 COSMOGONY. 

was born, much less a civilization equal to that of 
Greece. If it be asked, Why, then, did these tribes 
succeed in such mighty conquests ? we answer, Because 
they were more savage, and therefore had less, in fact 
no respect, for the rights and interests of others. Here 
we see the most unfit survives, and the world retrogrades 
instead of progresses. In the year 393, after the death 
of Theodosius, all classes of the people degenerated, and 
from this date may be reckoned the fall of the Roman 
Empire. Its decline, however, followed the reign of 
Antoninus. The effeminate and luxurious habits of the 
nobles and citizens, the vices of the emperors, the means 
by which they rose to power, the disposal of the sover- 
eignty by the military, the recruiting of the army from 
Germany and other barbarous countries, the increasing 
num^bers and audacity of the foreigners — all combined 
precipitated Rome from the eminence which she had at- 
tained during the consulate and the first years of the em- 
pire. Such, in brief, is the history of the rise, maturity, de- 
cline, and fall, not only of Rome, but of the whole family 
of nations, which in each case is marked by the waxing 
and waning of human culture and greatness. To assume 
that any generation has advanced mentally, morally, and 
physically is to assume that which the historic facts do 
not justify. 

In a national contest for subjugation, if the survivor 
could and would take up the standard of the vanquished, 
and steadily advance it, then indeed the world might 
boast of progress ; but when a child at birth can have 
transmitted to it as a natural inheritance all the knowl- 
edge and experience of its parents, then it will be pos- 
sible for a nation just emerged into life to select and 
assimilate all the elements calculated to ennoble man 
which the conquering power finds in possession of the 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 43 1 

fallen, whether in sentiment or practice, and adding 
these to its own, thus give birth to a new civilization, a 
new humanity. Or if it were a fact, which is quite 
otherwise, that when the nation most advanced in human 
progress made war upon another it would only subju- 
gate the lower and more vicious, expunge all the bad sen- 
timents written in its books, and cheerfully adopt what- 
ever was found which would elevate its own standard, 
preserving it without tarnish or compromise, then might 
evolution have grounds for defense. Such a nation 
would have ingrafted on her own stock a higher taste in 
art, more exact methods in science, truer principles of 
philosophy and more elevated sentiments of religion ; or, 
if found to be better, adopt them as a whole. This 
would indeed be progress, and had this been the result 
of the wars between nations, each contest would have 
blessed instead of having cursed mankind ; but alas ! 
how the march of nations and of generations has re- 
versed all this ! 

Had such been the case, then those hardy tribes of 
Germany who divided the Roman Empire into fragments 
and possessed themselves of them would have energized 
the people by the infusion of physical strength into 
Roman weakness, and diffused among them the spirit of 
patriotism and love of liberty which characterized them 
in their barbarian homes. Instead of this, however, 
these very events hastened the decline and culminated 
in the fall of the Roman Empire. 

Had progress been the rule, the barbarians would 
have maintained every virtuous trait of national charac- 
ter which they brought from their rude German homes, 
and would have absorbed the advanced civilization and 
learning of the empire ; but not even a healthy com- 
promise was the result of the union. 



432 COSMOGONY. 

From the fall of Rome down through the mediaeval, 
or emphatically the Dark Ages, ensued a period which 
all agree in characterizing thus : Galileo was condemned 
for teaching that the earth revolved. Although the 
earth was held to be a sphere two thousand years before, 
it was now held to be flat by the teachers of the age. 
Thus did science and philosophy retrograde instead of 
having progressed. At the beginning of the sixth century 
Mohammedanism had its advent, which has also de- 
graded and cursed the human family. Within its do- 
minions it had not only blocked every wheel of the car 
of progress, but thus rolled it centuries backward, and 
to-day it holds possession of the countries which once 
were the most civilized and Christianized of the world, 
and which had established an empire stretching from 
the Ganges to Morocco, embracing a vast number of 
populous islands in one direction, and from the southern 
extremity of Arabia to the borders of Hungary in 
another, including a very large proportion of the inhab- 
itants of the world. Even at the birthplace of the 
Saviour the Crescent is elevated, and the sign of the 
Cross has been banished for hundreds of years. Jeru- 
salem, even all Palestine, Athens, Constantinople, and 
all Egypt lie under the withering curse of Islam, and 
have for more than eleven centuries. 

The tenets of its religion convey the best idea of the 
extent of the degeneration of the people of those coun- 
tries. They teach the utter abhorrence of all who do 
not embrace them, and that the Koran contains every- 
thing worthy of being known. When the Saracens, 
under the command of Omar, a.d. 642, took the city 
of Alexandria, they seized a library of 700,000 volumes, 
which they committed to the flames. They heated the 
water of their baths for six months with burning books. 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY, 433 

Some one remonstrated with Omar for destroying the 
books. He asked if what they contained was all in the 
Koran. In reply he was told it was not. " Then," said 
he, " it ought to be burned ; " and if it was all in the 
Koran then there was no use for it." 

A People Never Rise Above their Religion. 

We may remark that a people never rise above their 
religion, and very seldom come up to its standard ; and 
we ask, What element of civilization has not Islam 
strangled? What feature of progressive development 
has it ever manifested to vindicate its fitness to be es- 
tablished or to continue to exist ? Here is a moral, 
civil, and religious monstrosity, which has blotted out all 
the civilizations of the East, as well as its Christianity, 
and has survived for forty generations, furnishing another 
gigantic fact in palpable contradiction to the claim that 
the world progresses. We may add another fact in this 
connection — namely, that England, claiming to be in the 
van of progressive evolutionary development, has kept 
Mohammedanism in existence for centuries. But for 
England's interference Russia would long ago have de- 
stroyed it as a civil power, which would have gone very 
far toward the destruction of its foolish and bloody re- 
ligion, which sends immediately into Paradise all who die 
in warring for the civil or religious rights of Moham- 
med. We repeat : if human progress were the rule, 
then the wisdom developed by the experience of nations 
and generations would be adopted by those succeeding, 
while that which was foolish and pernicious would be 
always rejected ; but in the march of nations and gener- 
ations the reverse of this is sadly apparent. 

As an example, take the teachings of Plato, the pupil 
of Socrates, who, living late in Grecian history, may 



434 COSMOGONY. 

fairly be supposed to have been learned in all the wis- 
dom of Greece. In his cosmological theory "he taught 
the existence of a Supreme Being, but that in conse- 
quence of the apparent imperfections of organic and 
inorganic nature, and because the Supreme Divinity 
could make nothing but the most perfect, committed the 
creation of the world and its inhabitants to a subordi- 
nate Deity. To make the world and set it in motion, this 
god plunged himself into the ocean of chaotic matter, 
when, testing his powers, he shook the mighty whole, 
and turning rapidly on himself, drew after him the world 
obedient to his efforts. Here originated the doctrine of 
Pantheism. Whatever its god may be conceived to be, 
he is confounded with the matter of the universe he 
made, which in fact makes the world itself a living ani- 
mal. 

It is easy to see that this notion tends to degrade man- 
kind by enslaving their maker by the material world, and 
that this idea has reached its lowest depth in the theory 
of evolution, whose advocates simply shift the deityship 
from Plato's Logos to the " Laws of Nature," in the lat- 
ter case leaving the Supreme Being entirely out of the 
question. As the scientists consider mankind the most 
exquisite workmanship turned out by the evolution ma- 
chine, their conceptions of greatness can reach no higher 
than themselves, and consequently they are incapable of 
the exercise of veneration or acts of devotion. They can 
not even enjoy the poor solace of natural religion, which, 
supposes nature to be greater than man. 

Then there is Plato's doctrine of natural immortality, 
which, in its various modifications and phases, has 
wrought endless confusion in the theological world, be- 
ing confounded with the immortality promised by Christ 
to His saints, and the immortality of Plato who said that the 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 435 

subordinate deity mixed soul matter in a cup, of which he 
made an immortal soul for every man who was to be 
born into the world, but none for women — women have 
no souls. These he reserved in a soul-storehouse, ready 
for distribution among male children as soon as born. 
He also taught that the human body was nothing but a 
carcass, which, when it dies, is dead forever, at which 
event the soul is released from the body as from a prison, 
and is received on high, where it lives without a body to 
all eternity. 

Plato also taught that if a man died unpardoned by 
the gods, his immortal soul was sent into a place of pun- 
ishment, where by the influence of his living friends he 
might be purged of his guilt, and afterward also received 
above among the gods. This philosopher saw the diffi- 
culty of transmitting immortal souls from parents to 
childjen, rendering it necessary that the mother, at least, 
should possess as many immortal souls as she had chil- 
dren, and yet the theory gave the mother no soul at all ; 
but he avoided this difficulty by having all the souls made 
at once, and at the beginning of the world. 

With him also originated spiritualism, and a host of 
kindred errors which have hung like a nightmare both 
upon Christianity and human progress, and which en- 
slave the minds of the present generation, even of scien- 
tists and philosophers, the most advanced specimens of 
whom in their conceit have concluded their ancestors 
were baboons. 

Plato's Doctrine of the Divine Essence {Deism), 

Then we have the mysterious and mischievous doc- 
trine of the " Divine Essence," which also originated 
with Plato, as the following sketch of his views will show. 
In his discourse on the formation of the world he says : 



43^ COSMOGONY. 

" And now the author of all things addressed the genii, 
to whom he had confided the government of the stars : 
Ye gods, who owe to me your birth, listen to my sover- 
eign commands. You have not a title to immortality, 
but you may partake in it by the power of my will, more 
potent than the bonds which unite the parts of which 
you are composed, to fill with inhabitants the sea, the 
earth, and the air. Were these creatures to receive life 
from me they would be exempt from the empire of 
death, and become equal to the gods themselves. I 
therefore commit to you the care of producing them. 
Delegates of my power ! unite to perishable bodies the 
germs of immortality which you shall receive from me ; 
and form those beings who may comiuiand over other 
animals to remain subject to you ; let them receive birth 
at your command, live to increase by your benefactions, 
and after death let them unite to you and share in your 
happiness. 

" He said, and immediately pouring into the cup, in 
which he had mixed the soul of the world, the remains 
of what he had reserved of that soul, he composed the 
souls of individual creatures, adding to those of man a 
portion of divine essence^ and annexed to them irrevocable 
destinies. Then it was decreed that mortals should be 
born, capable of knowing and serving the divinity ; that 
the man should have the pre-eminence over the woman ; 
that justice should consist in triumphing over the pas- 
sions, and injustice in yielding to them ; that the just 
after death should pass into the stars, and there enjoy 
unalterable felicity ; and that the unjust should be 
changed into women, or, if they remained unjust, trans- 
migrated into different animals, and that they should not 
be restored to their primitive dignity until they should 
become obedient to the voice of reason. After these im- 
mutable decrees, the Supreme Being disseminated souls 
into the different planets and commanded the inferior 
gods to clothe them successively with mortal bodies, to 
provide for their wants and to govern them. The im- 
mortal and rational soul was assigned its place in the 
brain, the most elevated part of the body, to regulate its 
motions." 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 437 

Plato flourished about 38S B.C., and from this con- 
densed presentation of his views it will be seen that he 
may be called the first pantheist, the first deist, the first 
spiritualist, and the first evolutionist, except that so far 
as the last is concerned, he began with the existence of 
a Supreme Being, who, however, was only the author of 
all things, as he made the soul, or genii that made the 
world, by clothing himself with all its material. So far 
as the world is concerned, he began with man, the most 
perfect, and thence on down to woman, thence also to the 
lower animals — exactly the reverse of Darwin's theory. 
If there is science or sense in either, it attaches to the 
teaching of Plato. 

We have said that modern deism originated in the 
philosophy of Plato. The divine essence, the immortal 
divinity or soul, his philosophy located in the human 
brain, to which he ascribed the faculty of reason. That 
the deists consider this the only god to be worshiped 
and the only guide to be consulted in all human relations 
will be apparent by the following extract from an address 
delivered a few years since by Jules Favre at the French 
Academy in Paris, who was called to the professorship 
as successor to Victor Cousin. After pronouncing an 
eulogium on M. Cousin, whom he declared to be the 
great expounder and translator of Plato, the successful 
philosophic writer, a peer of France under Louis Philippe, 
and Senator in the time of Louis Napoleon, he pro- 
ceeded with his peroration thus : " But the god of whom 
my immortal soul possesses the indelible image — the 
god who reveals himself to my conscience by my reason 
— is a god of intelligence and truth, and the first law 
which he has imposed upon me is respect for my intelli- 
gence and my liberty. [This is self-worship.] I am 
faithful to him in obeying my reason [his god], which he 
has given me for my guide. My duty is, therefore, to 
judge and to choose, and to refuse what my reason re- 
jects." 

The idea that every man has a little, immortal deity, 



43^ COSMOGONY. 

or god-essence, enthroned in his brain, to be worshiped 
and consulted as the first and highest duty, the dictates 
of the god-essence being an infaUible guide to faith and 
practice, is demonstrated by the honest and yet palpable 
contradictions manifested by the mental, moral, and re- 
ligious sentiments of mankind, to be one of the most ex- 
travagant and monstrously absurd notions ever con- 
ceived by a credulous mind. The pernicious influence 
of the deistical sentiments of the French Academy are 
strikingly exemplified in the deplorably low standard of 
Parisian religion and morality, and its rank skepticism. 

It were better that the seed thus sown by these ancient 
heathen authors had died with their inventors than that 
they should have survived not to advance, but to degen- 
erate and curse mankind. As blighting and demoraliz- 
ing as these evil opinions have been, they can only be 
considered as having paved the way for the doctrine of 
evolution — the quintessence of all the deceptive sophist- 
ries and lying wonders of the world, reducing man to a 
common brotherhood with the brutes around him. Ad- 
mitting the existence of no being higher than himself 
after which to aspire, the possibility of his elevation is 
precluded, and as it is an inherent law of his being to 
imitate and to worship, he becomes like the lower things 
he studies, and prostrates himself in the groveling worship 
of the ancestral monkeys and the creeping things through 
which he has crawled into existence. 

Cook, of Boston, adopts Plato s Doctrine of ^^ Life." 

Mr. Joseph Cook, of Boston, also teaches this deisti- 
cal doctrine of the divine essence as taught by Plato. 
Cook calls it the life, and the life was first — that is, be- 
fore the organization — and produced it. He represents 
the brain as the keys of the instrument upon which this 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 439 

living, intelligent creature, residing in the man's head, 
but not confounded with it, plays. It is no more a part 
of the brain than a player on the keys of a piano is a 
part of the piano itself ; but just as the musician plays 
upon the keys of the instrument, so this inhabitant of 
the head plays upon the organs of the brain. This 
creature is in possession of all the thoughts and intelli- 
gence the man will ever have, because all knowledge be- 
gins within, and then dispenses it by playing upon brain- 
keys, just as the musician dispenses music by playing 
upon the keys of the piano ; or, as the spiritualist ex- 
presses it, *' the spirit uses the organs of the man, as 
those of speech, by which to make its revelations." If 
the human organic keys are in any wise deranged or dis- 
organized, in the same degree will the intelligence be 
vague or incoherent, just as the music of the instrument 
will be discordant if the strings are out of tune. 

Here, however, the analogy ceases ; for while all mu- 
sic is impossible upon an instrument with every string 
broken, and the whole thrown into a state of disorgani- 
zation, as are those of the dead, yet complete disorgani- 
zation of the organic brain and of the whole man only 
releases the player and qualifies him to discourse more 
beautiful music, higher and more profound thought ; so 
that the want of rational thought is no more to be at- 
tributed to the intelligent being who sits back of the 
brain than the bad music is to the player who attempts 
to perform upon a piano the strings of which are all out 
of tune or broken. The error of this hypothesis is easily 
shown by the conclusions which it necessitates, some of 
which are as follows : 

First : this inward being did not obtain his knowledge 
from or through the medium of the organic brain, but 
only dispenses it as its own thoughts, first to the man 



440 COSMOGONY. 

himself, and secondly, through his bodily organs, to 
others, as best it was able through the service of so poorly 
made instruments. 

Secondly : If this intelligent tenant of man's head did 
not receive his knowledge through the brain or organic 
senses, he must have possessed it before he took posses- 
sion of the tenement. This is the doctrine of Plato and 
Cook ! " The life produced the organization." 

Thirdly : Human intelligence (argues Mr. Cook) is 
not the result of learning from books or other outward 
sources, in which case the five senses and the brain 
might not have existed at all, as these could not think, 
and therefore could convey no thought to thinking spirit 
or soul, or divine essence — call it what you will. This 
spirit is in possession of all the knowledge, and by play- 
ing on the brain-keys lets it out to the man himself, and 
through him to others, by the organs of speech, by writ- 
ing, or by signs ; and were the man dumb and had never 
heard, he could write of sound and music just as well : 
for his music teacher within knew all about the art, and 
having the brain to play on he could give the man him- 
self appreciable thought of music ; and controlling the 
organs of speech, which are entirely independent of his 
ears or auditory nerves, he could sing or speak equally 
as well as though he had always heard. 

If this doctrine is true, then there need never have 
been books, schools, or teachers, as the intelligent spirit 
or " divine essence " does not receive thoughts through 
material organs, which are incapable of forming any, but 
only plays upon organic brain-keys to convey its thoughts, 
originating within itself, first to the house, or man in 
which he resides, and thence through his bodily organs 
to society. Even this does not make society any more 
intelligent ; for each of its members has his knowing 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 44I 

creature, his instructor, in his own head, who cannot re- 
ceive thought from the outward world, as thought must 
be formed before it can be communicated to the intelli- 
gent resident of the head ; and as the material organism 
is incapable of thinking, therefore all outward teaching 
is absolutely impossible upon this hypothesis. This is 
skeptical materialism in its worst form. The logical re- 
sult of this theory is that all human knowledge was in 
possession of these living divinities before they entered 
the brain of mankind, and being abstract and indepen- 
dent of the human organization, living before and pro- 
ducing it, they will survive its dissolution, remaining as 
intelligent as before. If they do thus exist, and thus sur- 
vive, their prior, living, intelligent existence to the bodily 
organization is demonstrated. 

Cookism destroys Moral Responsibility. 

Fourthly : From such a condition of being it also fol- 
lows that man is not responsible for his ignorance, as it 
is the natural weakness or derangement of the organic 
brain, which prevents his natural resident genius from 
dispensing the instruction he possesses to the carcass in 
which he lives. The man is equally irresponsible for 
his moral conduct, and for the same reason — namely, 
the weakness of the moral organs of the brain. 

Suppose the lower passions to be very largely devel- 
oped in an individual, the play upon which would cause 
the man to become a drunkard, to rob, and murder, is 
it not plain that the material, organic man was not to 
blame for having such a disposition, or for the perpetra- 
tion of these acts, but that the responsibility rests wholly 
upon the resident in the interior, who played upon the 
bad keys, as the bad music was the work of the player 
upon the untuned piano ? The resident gentleman had 



442 COSMOGONY. 

no business to play on the bad organs of the brain. He, 
therefore, is the culprit, and not the man ; and it is as 
great a piece of ignorant and heartless presumption to 
punish the man — the mere instrument who is thus 
forced to act — as to hold the untuned stringed instru- 
ment responsible for the bad music the player makes. 
No ; it is the player who is the delinquent and sinner in 
both instances. 

It is to be hoped that the microscopical and surgical 
sciences will soon reach a degree of perfection that will 
enable students to remove the skull, detect and bring 
out these mysterious, impious, and vicious wretches, and 
administer to them due punishment for their bad deeds, 
as well as reward them for their good actions ; for noth- 
ing can be more unjust and cruel than the infliction of 
penalties upon human beings for their apparent bad 
deeds, or to award them honor for seeming good con- 
duct. Nor should any man be censured for his ignor- 
ance or esteemed for his wisdom. As it is an indisput- 
able fact, a demonstration of philosophical science, that 
human intelligence is the result of physical organization, 
it follows that there never would have been any had or- 
ganic man not existed. In such case the little myths 
of " divine essence " would never have been seen or 
known. 

But as human intelligence begins, and is therefore an 
effect, its existence must depend upon conditions. Let 
us suppose, then, the main condition to be the prior ex- 
istence of this other intelligent being residing in the 
brain of man, and remembering also it has been found 
that the existence of organic brain and organs of sense 
are essential to its manifestation as well as its reception, 
we are given as a consequence' the fact that this second 
person, this knowing resident, must also be endowed 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 443 

with similar organs by which he himself is rendered 
capable of communicating his, intelligence to the body 
or the man surrounding him, and through which he him- 
self became intelligent, or able to form thoughts. But 
as these organs of the second person must be composed 
of brain and nerves, or their equivalents — for it is im- 
material of what kind of substance they are made, pro- 
vided it is of a nature capable of presiding over and 
employing such organs as its instruments of manifesta- 
tion — he must hi|;nself be as really an organic, sentient 
being as the first ; and for the same reasons the third, 
fourth, fifth, and so on, must be living, sentient creatures, 
each independent of the other. From this complication 
and involvement we can never arrive at the original ; 
and until we find him we shall never reach the source 
of intelligence and of responsibility ; everything is instru- 
mental, and moved by inherent fatality. 

What can be more preposterous than the notion that 
such a myth — too small or too sublimated to be seen 
by the most powerful microscope — has the faculty of 
producing all the power man manifests, and of possess- 
ing all his knowledge, and that, too, before conveying it 
to the man himself ? 

This attempt to involve, as a resident, another intelli- 
gent being among the organs of man's organic brain in 
nowise accounts for the living and mental phenomena of 
the man ; and even were the hypothesis true, it would 
only shift the conclusion from that of being the re- 
sult of two organizations, of which the second (the man) 
is only the instrument, of the first (the divine essence,) 
the fundamental principle being that material human 
organization is indispensable to thinking, of which 
thought or intelligence is the result. With these, and 
similar views respecting the nature of man entertained 



444 COSMOGONY. 

at the present day, and substantially adopted from the 
most ancient heathen philosophy and science, with what 
consistency can we boast of progress, or that the fittest 
survives ? 

The Lower Anifnals depend upon Man for Subsistence 
and Existence. 

One of the commonest and most formidable objec- 
tions which atheism, and especially scientific atheism, 
makes to the Bible is that it regards i?ian as the great 
object for which the world was created, delegating to 
him supreme dominion, and of course making all ani- 
mals and other living things subservient and depedent. 
Man's desire to survive death — to live again — and his 
hope of eternal being are attributed to his pride ; for he 
has, it is said, really no more grounds for indulging this 
hope than have the lower animals. As with these, so with 
him : death ends all. Indeed, modern science com- 
pletely reverses this relation, and not only makes man 
dependent upon the lower animals for his subsistence, 
but provides for him a long line of ancestors from among 
these lower living things through whom he has evolved 
into being. 

Our position in answer to this objection is, that the 
subsistence and therefore the continued existence of the 
lower animals, including fish and fowl, for any consider- 
able length of time — say five hundred years — depends 
upon the labor and existence of man, so that his extinc- 
tion would result in their extermination. If, therefore, 
the extinction of man would cause the extinction of the 
lower animals, the fact would seem to be demonstrated 
that man and the lower animals came into existence sim- 
ultaneously. This fact alone completely disproves the 
hypothesis of evolution according to natural selection. 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 445 

The Biblical declaration upon the subject is as follows : 
" And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly 
the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may 
fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 
And God created great whales, which the waters brought 
forth abundantly, after their kind : and God saw that it 
was good. And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful, 
and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl 
multiply in the earth. And God said, Let the earth bring 
forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creep- 
ing thing, and beast of the earth after his kind : and it was 
so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, 
and cattle after his kind, and every creeping thing upon 
the earth after his kind ; and God saw that it was good. 
'* And God said. Let us make man in our image, after 
our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish 
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping 
thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man 
in His own image, in the image of God created He him ; 
male and female created He them. And God blessed 
them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, 
and replenish the earth, and subdue it : and have do- 
minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth." (Gen. i : 20-28). " And out of the ground the 
Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl 
of the air ; and brought them to Adam to see what he 
would call them : and whatsoever Adam called every 
living creature, that was the name thereof." (Gen. 2 : 19). 
"And God said. Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his 
kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it 
was so. (Gen. i : it). " And God said, Behold, I have 
given you [man] every herb bearing seed which is upon 
the face of the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit 
of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat, and to 
every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, 
and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein 
is life, I have given every green herb for meat : and it 
was so." (Gen. i : 29-30). 



44^ COSMOGONY. 

We see that the terms herb and fruit as here employed 
comprehend the meat (food) for all living things. Ani- 
mals have been divided into classes according to the 
kinds of food upon which they naturally feed, as frugiv- 
orous, herbivorous and carnivorous. The herbivorous 
are such as feed on herbaceous plants, soft and succu- 
lent, which perish annually down to their roots, or what 
are generally comprehended in what we call vegetation. 
The carnivorous are those animals which naturally prey 
upon other animals ; of these are the lion, tiger, wolf, 
and dog. These, however, prefer the flesh of herbivor- 
ous to that of carnivorous animals, hut devour both. 
The frugivorous and herbivorous animals have outnum- 
bered the carnivorous in about the proportion that civil- 
ized and semi-civilized man has outnumbered the sav- 
ages. We think we may safely advance the opinion that 
there is a greater number of domestic animals in ten 
cities of the United States than there are carnivorous 
animals in the whole world besides. 

Another important fact which goes very far toward 
the establishment of our position is, that man is the only 
animal who clears the land of trees and cultivates the 
soil — he only sows seed, plants fruit-trees, and reaps 
harvests. There is no account of a race of men so sav- 
age that they did not clear land, sow seed, and reap har- 
vests, nor one that did not rear and keep domestic ani- 
mals. Another fact is that trees will grow wherever 
there is soil enough to sustain any kind of plant, and 
also that they will be numerous in proportion to the 
richness of the soil. It is likewise a fact that no cereals 
or fruit will grow in a dense woods, not even grass for 
hay ; also that it does not require fifty years to grow a 
forest of oaks, and not half that time for one of various 
other kinds of trees. It is also a fact that a large pro- 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 447 

portion of vegetable matter produced upon the earth is 
washed into the rivers, lakes and seas by the rains of 
heaven, which supplies the food for the smaller fishes, 
while the larger prey upon and devour the smaller. 

It is a fact that the birds or fowls feed on fruits, vege- 
tables, fish, and carrion, and also that the birds of prey 
devour the smaller ones and the domestic birds and 
fowls. 

The World with Man Extinct. 

Let us now suppose the sudden extinguishment of 
mankind, and what would be the result. Take this con- 
tinent for example — and of course what would result here 
would equally upon every other continent and island on 
the face of the globe. Suppose the time of the catastrophe 
was early spring, too soon to sow or plant. That spring 
not a seed is sown or planted on the face of the earth, 
and as a result no harvests are reaped in the fall. By 
the next spring almost all the domestic animals have 
died by starvation and exposure, especially those who 
depend on the harvests of the field for food. The car- 
nivorous and birds of prey have fattened and increas- 
ingly multiplied during this period. Ten years pass, and 
not a domestic animal lives on the continent. Let us 
look ahead to the end of the century, and see in what a 
condition are all the cleared lands and the rich, culti- 
vated farms. All are covered with dense woods • not a 
square rod of land which would produce grass for cattle 
can be found uncovered by wild brushwood or trees. 
The fruit-trees, overtopped and choked by wild-wood, 
long since became extinct. 

The herbivorous animals flourished for a time on the 
prairies, where the unbroken winds sweep over and de- 
stroy the young trees before they obtain sufficient size 



44^ COSMOGONY. 

and strength to resist their fury. Here for a time the con- 
tests raged between the wild and tame animals, but in less 
than twenty-five years none but carnivora survived, and 
long before the hundred years had ended the last two of 
these had met in deadly conflict ; the survivor fed on 
the vanquished and laid down and died by starvation. 
The flowers, vegetables, fruits and animals, the food for 
insects, being gone, they too had ceased to be. The 
smaller birds, which fed upon these, have joined the 
number of the dead. Those birds of prey which de- 
pended upon insect-feeding kind for food have devoured 
the few that remained, and finally also died of starva- 
tion. 

Those birds which preyed upon the small fishes liv- 
ing close to the shores and in shallow waters have also 
perished for lack of food. These fishes fed upon the 
living and dead insects, also upon the vegetable matter 
washed from the cultivated farms, but in less than a 
hundred years the supply had been exhausted, and the 
insects and small fishes had become extinct. Upon these 
smaller fishes the larger ones of the deep had depended 
for their food ; the supply being cut off, they too had 
preyed upon each other, and the last dread contest had 
taken place between the two surviving monsters of the 
deepest seas. The stronger and more savage had killed 
and devoured his antagonist and himself had died by 
starvation. Universal death reigned. 

There are scores of other causes which we might men- 
tion and which would accelerate the extinguishment of 
the animal life of the world after man was gone ; but 
those we have named are so absolutely interdependent, 
and therefore consequent, that it needs but the state- 
ment of the facts in order to demonstrate our position, 
that without the labor of man the world is worthless — 



DEGENERACY THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 449 

that he not only holds dominion over all other living 
things, but that they can np more live without his labor 
and care than can an infant without a nurse. If one 
hundred years is not sufficient time wherein to complete 
the extinction of animal life under the circumstances we 
have supposed (which we believe to be abundant) then 
extend the time to five hundred years. Surely no ani- 
mal could have existed five hundred years ; much less 
could they have come into existence and maintained 
themselves hundreds and thousands of years before there 
was a living man upon earth, as evolutionists teach. 
The supposition is rendered still more impossible when 
we take into consideration the claim of these skeptical 
scientists that before the animals appeared there was a 
period of luxurious vegetation called that of the " car- 
boniferous," covering millions of years. As we have 
seen in the case of animals the most savage and unfit 
survive, so also is it with vegetation. Without the exis- 
tence, labor and care of man the grain fields and fruit 
orchards succumb while the choking weeds, wild brush- 
wood, and dense forests prevail and take their place. 
This gives us the conclusion that if man had not come 
into existence before vegetation had obtained this de- 
structive march, and with his labor and art to have 
beaten back the devourer, neither he nor the lower 
animals could have maintained their existence, thus 
completely reversing the theory of geological evolution 
according to the doctrine of natural selection, that the 
fittest survives. These facts and their legitimate teach- 
ing not only confirm, but demonstrate the Bible state- 
ments of the creation that all organic beings and things, 
plants and animals, with man at their head, came into 
existence simultaneously. It is the voice of universal 
observation — of scientific and philosophic necessity. 



450 COSMOGONY. 

It seems to us that no man who understands the science 
and philosophy of the universe contained in the " Scrip- 
tures of truth " and the revelations of nature can be in- 
different to the consummation of the great object of the 
Creator in bringing them into existence, namely, the re- 
creation of the present temporary world and system into 
one of endless duration and absolute perfection. " The 
world to come whereof we speak." 



THE END OF VOLUME ONE. 



TESTIMONIALS. 



Observers have noted— some with alarm, others with indiffer- 
ence — the rapid spread of infidelity within the past few years. 
How to check its growth, or at least how to counteract its in- 
fluence, is a question which had engaged the attention of many 
thoughtful minds. The clergy, though loudly called upon to 
defend their faith and put down the common enemy, have gen- 
erally maintained studied silence. Sach as have responded to 
the call have done so with such indiscretion that they, too, 
might better have kept silence. Mere denunciation is more 
likely to repel friends than to convert or restrain foes. I note, 
however, one remarkable exception. The Rev. Thomas Mitch- 
ell, of Brooklyn, marches boldly into the enemy's country and 
fights him on his own ground, and with his own weapons — the 
truths of science. 

He has in press a work in two volumes, entitled Cosmogony, 
wherein he attacks, with great skill and spirit, the positions and 
theories of the evolutionists, geologists, astronomers, chronolo- 
gists, and the whole school of atheists who masquerade in the 
garb of science. 

I have read the manuscript of Mr. Mitchell's work, and I am 
bound to confess that, though I had pretty nearly acquiesced in 
the doctrine of evolution, with all its ridiculous and grotesque 
conclusions — I say, I freely confess that Mr. Mitchell's argu- 
ments have caused me to hesitate and doubt. For he certainly 
has presented problems which men of science have not yet even 
attempted to solve ; nor does it seem possible that they can be 
solved upon any other known modern scientific principle. 

In dealing with Mr. Robert Ingersoll, Mr, Mitchell employs no 
velvet words, and uses no gloved hands. Indeed, he directly 
charges him with untruth and misrepresentation, and what is 



TESTIMONIALS. 

more, he seems to prove his charges. The work is to be sold by 
the American News Company, New York ; which means, of 
course, a large sale. However that may be, the book ought to 
sell on its own merits. Whoever will read it, whatever may be 
his opinions, cannot fail to gain new ideas, and to see familiar 
facts presented in a new light. 

Chables Hunt. 
Mr. Hunt was thirteen years on the New York Tribune, and 
part of that time on the editorial staff. 



Brooklyn, Feb. 15, 1881. 
Professok Mitchell, 

Dear Sir : — I know you to be a sincere and 
zealous inquirer after Truth. You are well qualified by your 
learning and training as a thinker and biblical critic to investi- 
gate those subjects to which your time and attention are directed. 
Though my opinions in regard to certain doctrines of Scripture 
are different from yours, yet I highly approve of your efforts to 
defend the truth as you believe and understand it. 

Your Cosmogony is a work of great merit. It displays re- 
search, learning, and thorough acquaintance with the Sacred 
Volume. The facts are well arranged, the illustrations are apt 
and striking, — all expressed in clear and forcible language. 
Such a work is much needed. It will no doubt have an exten- 
sive circulation — as a book ought to have, the object of which is 
' ' to demonstrate that the Scriptures have emanated from a 
mind seeing the end from the beginning. " With kind regards, 

Yours very truly, 

David Syme, A.M. 

The Rev. David Syme was Professor of Mathematics, Natural 
Philosophy, and Chemistry, in the Grammar Sehool of Columbia 
College, New York. 

To Rev. Thomas Mitchell : 

Dear sir : — From your discussions, 
of which your promised Cosmogony is an epitome, and from the 
examination of the table of contents I should judge that the book 
will be one much needed in the field of theolegical science at 
the present day, its aim, scope, and effect being the elucidation 



TESTIMONIALS. 

of Truth suited to tlie comprehension of tlie masses as well as 
furnishing mental food for the most intellectual, and must be- 
come a work long felt to be a necessity among the people. 

J. B. Jones, M.D., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Feb. 1881. 

Having read some of Rev. Thomas Mitchell's books, and heard 
him discourse agreat many times upon scientific, philosophic, and 
religious questions, with the whole range of which he seems to 
be familiar, tracing and elucidating their connection and depend- 
ence upon each other, and the able manner in which all are re- 
duced to one great circle of harmony, each part occupying its 
appropriate place ; thus reaching conclusions which not only 
seem to be logical, but unanswerable. In view of which I have 
no hesitation in giving it as my opinion that his forthcoming 
Cosmogony will be hailed as a most valuable accession to the 
literature of the world, and peculiarly applicable to these times, 
as it meets the pretended scientific objections to the Holy Scrip- 
tures and Christianity, as well as those of the skeptical and 
atheistic world. I cannot, therefore, but anticipate for it a very 
wide circulation. 

Eliphalet Nott, M.D. 

Dr. Nott is a graduate of Union College, New York, and edu- 
cated under the care of his grandfather, the late Dr. Nott, who 
was sixty-one years president of the college. 






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